w 


SCHOOL  TEACHER'S  LIBftiRY: 

SEVEN   VOLUMES. 


1I1H   LIBRARY   18  DEDICATED   TO   THE  TEACHERS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES, 
AND   DESIGNED  TO   AID   THEM    IN   THEIR   PROFESSION. 

1.  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  TEACHING; 


C*- 


REESE    LIBRARY 

t      IKK 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 

Kef fired.   -  \*&&  *UUf88 

Accessions  No.  *&.£SJ£-&    Shelf  No.  - 


:>s  toTeachera  and  Parents.     By  On  ^  .;«  XOCTHKNB,   LSt, 

late,  and  for  many  years,  Principal  of  th  •  Kpes  School,  Salem  ;  n->vr 

Superintendent  of  the  Public  Schools,  Danvers,  Mass.    Price  $1  25. 

CONTENTS.  — PART   I. 


Common  Schools. 
The  TraoluT. 

ThorotiL'h  Knowledge,  Aptness  to  Teach, 
A'-curaey.  Pnttence,  and  Perseverance. 
Candor,  Trntlifnlnf»,  and  Courteousness. 
Ingenuity.  Individuality.  •* 
Kindliest.  Gentleness,  Forbearance,  and 


. 

Common   ^j-nso,   Knowledge  of  linman 
.ml  Information,  Desire  to 
1.  HIK!  Hopefulness. 
•  M.,ral  Principles.  Exemplary  Hab- 
it* and  Detriment,  Dili-rnic.-. 
NVatnr**  am!  Order,  Belf-ControL 
J.^irnr.s-  Kntlm-i.i-m. 

nt    and    I'mdence,    System    and 
.  tlity,  Independence. 


Professional  Feeling  and  Interest  a  deep 
and  well-grounded  Interest  in  Teach- 
ing. 

Means  of  Improvement 

Teaching— Discipline. 

Means  of  interesting  Pupils  and  Parents. 

Moral  Instruction— Emulation  and  Prizes. 

Primary  Schools— Lessons  and  Recita- 
tions. 

Examinations  and  Exhibitions— Multipli- 
city of  Studies. 

Reading— Spelling— Penmanship. 

Geogrnphy— Grammar. 

Letter-writing  and  Composition— Arith- 
metic—Book-keeping. 

Declamation— Singing. 

Miscellaneous. 


PART    II. 


Introductory  Retnwks—  School-bouses. 
Children  Miould  not  be  sent  to  School  too 

To  prcvide  Good  Teachers-School  8u- 
pervteion. 


Parents  should  encourage  the  Teacher. 
Specinc  Duties— Candor  and  Charitable- 
High  and  honorable  Motives. 


A.  S.  BARNES  &  SURE,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  York. 


THE  SCHOOL-TEACHER'S  LIBRARY, 


3.  AMERICAS'    EDUCATION:    Its   PRINCIPLES  and   ELEMENTS 
Dedicated  to  the  Teachers  of  the  United  States.     By  EDWARD  D. 
MANSFIELD,  Author  of  "  Political  Grammar,"  &c.     Price  $1.25 
CONTENTS. 


The  Idea  of  a  Eepublic. 

The  Means  of  perpetuating  Civil  and  Ee- 
Ijgious  Liberty. 

The  Idea  of  an  American  Education. 

The  Teacher— his  Qualifications,  his  Teach- 
ing, and  his  Character. 

The  Idea  of  Science. 

The  Utility  of  Mathematics. 

The  Utility  of  Astronomy. 


The  Utility  of  History. 

The  Science  of  Language. 

Literature  a  Me.ans  of  Education. 

Conversation  an  Instructor. 

The  Constitution— the  Law-book  of  the 

nation. 

The  BIBLK— the  Law-book  from  Heaven. 
The  Education  of  Women. 
Elementary  Ideas— The  Future. 


4.  THE  MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  UNIVERSAL  EDUCA- 
TION.    By  IRA  MAYHKW,  A.  M.,  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction of  the  State  of  MidJiigan.     Price  $1.25. 

CONTENTS. 

In  what  does  a  Correct  Education  consist?— The  Importance  of  Physical  Educa- 
tion— Laws  of  Health — The  Nature  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Education — Education 
of  the  Five  Senses — The  Necessity  of  Moral  and  Eeligious  Education,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

5.  AMERICAN  INSTITUTIONS   AND  THEIR  INFLU 

ENl&E,     By  ALEXIS  DB-TocQUEViLLE.     With  Notes,  hy  Hon.  JOHN 
C.  SPENCER.     1  vol.  8vo.     Price  $1.25. 

This  book  is  one  of  great  weight  'and  interest,  and  is  admirably  adapted  for  the 
District  and  School  Library,  as  well. as  that  of  the  private  student.  It  traces  the 
origin  of  the  Anglo-Americans,  treatsvof  their  social  condition,  its  essential  democ- 
racy and  political  consequences,  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  &c.  It  also  embraces 
the  author's  views  on  the  American  system  of  townships,  counties,  &c. ;  Federal  and 
State  powers;  the  judiciary:  the  constitution;  parties;  the  press;  American  society; 
power  of  the  majority,  its  tyranny,  and  the  causes  which  mitigate  it;  trial  by  jury; 
religion:  the  three  races;  the  aristocratic  party;  causes  of  American  commercial 
prosperity,  &c.,  &c.  The  work  is  an  epitome  of  the  entire  political  and  social  con- 
dition of  the  United  States. 

6.  DAVIES'  LOGIC   OF  MATHEMATICS.    The  Logic  and 

Utility  of  Mathematics,  with  the  hest  Methods  of  Instruction,  ex- 
plained and  illustrated.     By  CHARLES  DAVIES,  LL.D.     Price  $1.25. 

7.  SCHOOL  AMUSEMENTS  ;  or,  How  TO  MAKE  THE  SCHOOL  IN- 
TKRKSTING.      Embracing  simple  Rules  for  Military  and  Gymnastic 
Exercises,  and  Hints  upon  the  General  Management  of  the  School- 
Room.    With  Engravings.     By  N.  W.  TAYLOR  ROOT.     Price  $1.25. 

CONTENTS. 
Every  Teacher  his  own  Drill  Master — Gymnastlcr — School  Management. 

From  the  New  York  Teacher. 

"  We  have  looked  over  this  book  with  no  little  interest,  and  doubt  not  that  every 
teacher  into  whose  hands  it  may  come  wilLbe  much  benefited  by  a  perusal.  It  is 
from  the  hand  of  a  master,  who  evidently  knows  that  whereof  he  affirms.  The 
directions  for  'drill  jexercise1  are  full  and  explicit.  The  chapter  on  '  Gymnast i  >'  is 
particularly  excellent;  and  the  treatise  on  'School  Management'  is  altogether  the 
clearest  and  most  commendable  of  any  we  have  before  met  with — fertile  in  expedi- 
ents, full  and  spirited  in  detail,  humanizing  in  character,  and  practical  iii  design. 
Every  page  is  full  of  instruction;  and  the  work  needs  only  to  be  knoiva  W  be 
appreciated." 

A.  S  BARNES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  Turk, 


THE    HIGHER 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION, 


BY 


BENJAMIT^jW.   £>WIGHT, 

•      V-i 
MTTHOB  OF  "MODERN  PHILOLOGY,  ITS  HISTORY,  DISCOVBIUHS  AND  RESULTS.* 


NEW  YOKK  : 

A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR,  51  &  53  JOHN  STREET. 
1859. 


ENTIWSD,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

A.  8.  BARNES  &  BUEE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


GEKEKAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


I, 

THE  TRUE  WORK  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION. 

II. 

THE  TRUE  STYLE  AND  MEASURE  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN 
EDUCATION. 

III. 
THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHER. 

IV. 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  SCHOLAR. 

V, 

THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 
WITH  THE  PROGRESS  AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

THE  TRUE  WORK  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION...  1-61 

I.  The  Nobility  of  the  Christian  Teacher's  Vocation 8-22 

Viewed  from  an  Earthward  Stand-point 8-9 

Viewed  from  an  Heavenward     do 10 

The  Profession  in  Present  Dishonor 10-13 

God  a  Creator  in  order  to  he  an  Educator 13-15 

This  the  Profession  of  Professions 17 

A  High  Appreciation  Necessary  to  Right  Entrance 

on  it 20 

Its  Work  in  Many  Things  Above  that  of  the  Min- 
istry   21 

The    Mass   of    Qualifications  Required  in    a  True 

Teacher 22 

II.  Some  of  its  Great  Normal  Principles 22-61 

1st.  Its  Whole  Spirit  to  be  Thoroughly  Christian 23-6 

No  Motor-power  on  Earth  like  Love  to  Christ 23 

Poor  Education  the   Source  of  Earth's  Perpetuated 

Misery  24 

The  Love  of  Fame  the  Highest    Stimulus  Known  to 

the  Ancients....  25 


Viii  CONTENTS. 

PA0B 

Ours,  the  Desire  in  All  Things  to  Please  God 26 

2<L  The  Principle   to   he   followed  :    that  the  Body   is 
Made  for  the  Mind  and  for  the  Observance  of  its 

Laws 26-41 

Earnest  Habits  of  Mind  a  Great  Stimulus  to  Health  2? 

The  Two-fold  Conditions  of  Mental  Vigor 29 

False  Theories    about  the  Unhealthiness   of  Hard 

Study 30 

Their  Evil  Influence  on  the  Education  of  the  Young.. 

The  Many  Possible  Causes  of  Ill-health  to  Students..  33 

The  Reflex  Joyousness  of  Mental  Devotion  to  Great 

Objects 35 

Criticism  on  the  Recent  Advocacy  of  Other  Views...  36 

Thought  the  Fountain  of  Perpetual  Youth 36 

The  Health  and  Longevity  of  German  Students 37 

The  Ruinous  Effects  of  Bad  Air  on  American  Stu- 
dents  *... .  38-41 

3d.  True  Education  but  a  Development 41-48 

Strong  Loving  Stimulation  a  Teacher's  First  Duty...  42 
Thorough  Mental  Discipline  the  True  Object  of  his 

Aims 43 

True  Education  one  of  the  Greatest  of  Arts 44 

The  Results  Obtained  from  a  True  Education 45-7 

§  1.  The  Full  Use  and  Possession  of  One's  Whole 

Self. 45 

§  2.  A  State  of  Full  Responsiveness  to  the  Out- 
ward Universe 46 

§  3.  A  State  of  Perpetual  Growth  in  Range  and 

Power  of  Action  and  in  Joy 47 

4tli.  The  Ultimate  End  to  Each  Individual,  Character ...  48-51 
Our  Moral  Nature  the  Summit  of  our  Whole  Be- 
ing   48 

Subjective  Art  the  Highest  of  all  Arts 49 

All  True  Human  Growth,  Self-growth 50 

The  End  of  the  Universe,  the  Formation  of  Charac- 
ter   51 

The  End  of  all  True  Education,  Christ 51 

6th.  The  Teacher's  Highest  Influence,  a  Personal  One..  51-8 
One's  Insensible  Influence,  the  Greatest  Exerted  by 

Him....  52 


CONTENTS. 


The  Influence  of  Man  on  Man,  the  Greatest  of  all 

Earthly  Influences 53 

Mere  Mechanism,  the  Reliance  of  Most  Educators...  54 

The  Inevitableness  of  Routine  Denied 55-7 

The  Alleged  Ingratitude  of  Youth  Noticed 57 

6th.  The  Greatest  Possible    Productiveness  to  be  Se- 
cured   58-61 

The  Quality  of  Results  Gained  to  be  Observed 58 

The.  least  Possible  Waste  only  to  be  Allowed 69 

The  greatest  Possible  Results  to  be  Actually  Achieved  60 

II 

THE  TRUE  STYLE  AND  MEASURE  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN 

EDUCATION 65-128 

First,  in  Reference  to  the  Body 66-81 

The  Physical  System,  the  Basis  of  all  the  Rest 66 

Physical  Habits  of  the  Ancients 67 

Variety  of  Specific  Bodily  Results  Attainable ,        68 

I.  The  Bodily  Ends  to  be  Gained 68-76 

1st.  Soundness,  or  Health 68-72 

Health  as  a  Duty,  Power,,  Joy,  and  Be  auty 69-72 

2d.  Positive  Strength 72-4 

As  Necessary  for  Strong  Thought  as  for  Strong  Work  72 

Many  Unmanned  for  Life  by  Poor  Health 73 

Positive  Vigor,  a  Great  Want  of  the  Times 74 

3d.  Grace  of  Mien  and  Manner 74-6 

II.  The  Means  of  Gaming  the  Ends  Described 76-81 

1st.  Conformity  to  the  Appointed  Laws  of  the  Body...  77 

2d.  Thorough  Mental  Industry  for  Great  Ends 78 

3d.  Habitual  Cheerfulness 80 

Sec.ondly,  in  Reference  to  the  Intellect 81-120 

I.  Intelligence 81-112 

1st.  Acquaintance  with  Man 82-94 

(1.)  The  Knowledge  of  Human  Nature,  its  Value 

and  the  Mode  of  Gaining  it 82 

(2.)  The  Knowledge  of  Human  History :  its  Liberal- 
izing Influence :  the  True  Way  of  Studying  it  and 

of  Teaching  it 83-6 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

(3.)  The  Knowledge  of  Human  Language,  &o 87-92 

The  Study  of  Language,  the  Best  of  all  Discipline...  87 

Female  Education  Radically  Deficient  Here 88 

The  True  Christian  Mode  of  Teaching  the  Classics...  89 

The  Attractions  of  the  Study  of  Literature 90 

The  Charms  of  English  Literature 91 

Value  of  High  ^Esthetical  Culture 92 

Criticism  and  Rhetoric  :  their  Value  and  Function...  92 

(4.)  The  Knowledge  of  Human  Wants 92-3 

2d.  Acquaintance  with  Science 94-105 

The  Exact  Sciences  and  their  Utility 95 

The  Natural  Sciences  :  their  Newness  and  Value 96 

The  French,  German  and  American  Educational  Sys- 
tems Compared 98 

The  True  Mode  of  Teaching  the  Natural  Sciences....  99 

Mental  and  Moral  Science 101 

Legal  and  Political  Science 102 

The  Present  Low  Style  of  Collegiate  Education 103 

Hints  Towards  a  Better  Ideal 104 

3d.  Acquaintance  with  Nature 105-8 

The  Value  of  Beauty  of  Nature  to  a  Scholar 105 

The  Necessity  of  its  Use  in  a  True  Education 106 

Where  and  How  it  Should  be  Pursued 107 

The  Materials  for  it  even  in  a  City 108 

4th.  Acquaintance  with  Art 109 

5th.  Acquaintance  with  God:  His  Word  and  Character....  109-12 
The  Place  of  the  Bible  in  our  System  of  Education...  110 
The  Practical  Use  to  be  made  of  God's  Personal  Re- 
lations to  us Ill 

n.  Aspiration 112-14 

No  Object  in  Education  More  Neglected 113 

IIL  The  Power  and  Habit  of  Disciplined  Application  to  the 

Daily  Work  of  Life 114 

IV.  Full  Power  of  Communication 115-19 

The  Sceptred  Men  now,  the  Men  of  the  Pe* 116 

The  Power  of  Earnest  Words 117 

Christ's  Use  of  Speech  as  His  Great  Instrument  of 

Good 118 

V.  Artistic  Execution 119 

God  a  Perfect  Artist,  and  Man  should  Strive  to  be...  119 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE 

The  Art  of  Composition  the  Highest  of  all  Objective 

Arts 119 

Thirdly,  In  Reference  to  the  Heart 120-7 

The  Narrowness  of  mere  Educational  Regard  for  the 

Intellect 120 

Society  Greatly  Interested  in  the  Character  of  its  Ed- 
ucated Men 121 

The  Points  to  he  Gained  in  their  Character 122 

Any  Education  not  Religious,  Abominable 123 

All  Irreligious  Systems  Doomed  to  Perish 125 

The  Restraints  of  the  Fear  of  Hyper-Denominational- 

ism 126 

What  a  Religious  Teacher  Can  Do 127 

III 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHER 131-199 

No  One's  Services  to  Humanity  Greater 132 

I.  His  Spirit 132-143 

1st.  He  Loves  his  Work 133-8 

His  Love  for  it  and  for  Life  on  Account  of  it,  a  Passion  134 

His  Influence  Compared  with  a  Parent's 137 

2dly.  He  Loves  his  Pupils 138-141 

He  Loves  them  Personally 138 

The  Power  of  Truth  Combined  with  Love 139 

His  Care  to  Avoid  the  Mistakes  made  in  his  Education  140 

3dly.  He  Loves  his  Master 141-3- 

This,  his  Chosen  Mode  of  Serving  Christ 141 

True  Teaching  is  and  must  be  Religious 1 42 

II.  His  Labors 143-190 

Labor  a  Joy  to  him,  not  a  Curse 144 

1st.  His  Labors  at  Home 145-151 

§  1.  He  Studies  the  Wants  of  his  Pupils 146 

§  2.  He  Strives  to  Enlarge  his  own  Attainments 146-151 

(1.)  He  Informs  himself  Fully  of  Passing  Events...  147 

(2.)  He  is  Ever  Busy  in  Close  Earnest  Study 148 

(a.)  In  the  Range  of  his  Own  Specialties 149 

(b.)  In  the  Bounds  of  General  Scholarship 150 

The  Greatest  Want  among  Teachers  that  of  Earnest 

Men....  151 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

2d.  His  Labors  at  School 152-191 

Here  all  his  Strength  is  Expended 152 

The  Special  Preparatives  of  Childhood  for  Right  Influ- 
ence  ,....  153 

The  Ways  in  which  they  are  Commonly  Abused 154: 

His  Treatment  of  them  how  Different 155 

His  Four  Chief  Forms  of  Labor 155-190 

1.  Instruction 156-170 

§  1.  He  Strives  to  Get  Every  Pupil  Thoroughly  at  Work  156 

§  2.  He  Purposely  Places  Obstacles  Before  Him 157 

§  3.  He  Aims  to  Form  in  Him  Habits  of  Perfect  Method  158 

§  4.  He  Carefully  Sets  Up  High  Ideals  Before  Him 159 

The  Secrets  of  Successful  Teaching 161 

The  Philosophical  Mode  the  True  One 162 

Many  Slavishly  Confined  to  Text-books 162 

Many  Forget  all  the  Uses  of  Teaching 163 

Many  Teach  who  Should  Become  Learners  Them- 
selves    163 

The  Special  Fields  for  the  Highest  Kind  of  Teaching  162-170 

(1.)  History  one  of  the  Most  Valuable 164-7 

The  Rich  Variety  of  its  Topics 164 

The  Necessity  of  Large  Foundations  in  it  in  one's 

Youth 165 

History  Itself  a  Rich  Deposit  of  Philosophy 166 

History  and  Prophecy  Mutually  Illustrative 166 

(2.)  Science  one  of  the  Teacher's  Highest  Fields  of 

Interest 167-9 

Science  to  be  Taught  so  as  Everywhere  to  Show 

God 167 

To  be  Taught  also  with  Reference  to  its  Uses 168 

The  Habits  of  Mind  Gained  by  its  Study 168 

(3.)  Language  when  Rightly  Mastered  and  Taught..  169 
Classical  Study  a  Land  of  Mines  and  Gems  and 

Spices 170 

2.  Government 171-184: 

This,  One  of  the  Highest  of  Arts 171 

§  1.  It  Must  bo  Exact 172 

The  Voluntary  System  of  Government  Should  Not  be 

Found  Wanting  Here 173 

The  Want  of  Exact  Discipline  in  this  Country 174 


CONTENTS.  XU1 


§  2.  It  Must  be  Genial 175-80 

Most  Teachers  Ungenial  and  Formal 175 

Youth  to  be  Treated  as  Courteously  as  their  Seniors.  176 

The  Two  Great  Elements  of  All  True  Government....  177 

Thorough  Habits  of  Industry  Must  be  Secured 178 

Tact  to  be  Employed  at  All  Times 179-83 

Anticipative  and  Preventive  Influences 180 

Talent  in  Reading  Character 181 

Skill  in  the  Treatment  of  the  Erring 182 

The  Use  of  Corporeal  Punishment 183 

3.  That  of  Personal  Influence 184-9 

The  Great  Undesigned  Influence  of  Mere  Character..  184-6 

For  Designed  Influence,  Great  Scope  Here 187 

The  Power  of  Earnestness 188 

The  Power  of  Direct  Personal  Love 189 

4.  Immediate  Religious  Effort 189-91 

Religion  to  be  the  All-pervasive  Spirit  of  his  Work...  190 

Not  Made  Attractive  as  it  Should  be  to  the  Young...  190-1 

In  Conclusion :  the  Policy  of  Merit,  the  Only  Policy..  191 

Nothing  to  be  Substituted  for  Honest,  Earnest  Work.  192 

What  the  Results  of  True  Teaching  are 193 

Average  modes  of  Dealing  with  Pupils 194 

Perpetual  Effort  to  be  Made  for  Each  Individual 195 

Parents  and  Guardians  not  Exacting  Enough 197 

The  Prevailing  Low  Style  of  Education 198 

IV 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  SCHOLAR 203-67 

The  Meaning  of  the  Word  Scholar 203 

The  Name  Ever  One  of  Honor 204 

Mind,  not  Might,  Now  Rules  the  World 205 

I.  The  Characteristics  of  the  Scholar 206-37 

1st.  His  Loves  and  Pleasures 207-18 

(1.)  He  Delights  hi  Gaining  Knowledge 207-12 

The  Great  Pleasure  of  Acquisition 207 

The  Power  and  Pleasure  Gained  by  Ever-increas- 
ing Knowledge 208-9 

General  Scholarship  and  Special  Compared 209-11 

(2.)  He  Delights  in  Finding  Truth,  as  such 212-15 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Truth  the  Divine  Aliment  of  the  Soul 212 

The  True  Scholar  Appreciative  of  Evangelical  Truth  214 

(3.)  He  Delights  in  Using  his  own  Powers 215-18 

Mere  Animal  Activity,  and  Much  More  Mental,  De- 
lightful   216 

The  Special  Pleasures  of  Christian  Scholarship 217 

Its  High  Practical  Ends  as  a  Source  of  Pleasure 218 

2d.  His  Liberties 218.-24 

He  Reads  the  Inner  Sense  of  all  Things 219 

His  Range  is  the  Universe 220 

He  is  Free  from  the  Limitations  of  Others 221 

His  Resources  he  makes  Productive 222 

His  Occasions  of  his  own  Appointment 223 

3dly.  His  Habits 

(1.)  Of  Thought  and  Feeling  About  his  Work 224-33 

§  1.  His  Patience 224-29 

He  Accepts  Gladly  the  Law  of  Labor 224 

Classical  Study  a  Great  Preparative  for  Patience  225 

The  Heroism  of  Every-day  Life  the  Highest 227 

The  Demands  for  it  Made  by  High  Scholarship..  228 

§  2.  His  Enthusiasm 229-32 

A  Quality  Essential  to  the  Student 229 

A  Moral  Virtue  to  be  Cultivated 230 

Special  Reasons  for  it  in  a  Student's  Life 231 

Life's  Aspects  to  Him 232 

(2.)  His  Habits  of  Action  Toward  his  Work 233-8 

§  1.  To  be  Thorough  in  his  Style  of  Executing 

it 233 

§  2.  To  Concentrate  his  Whole  Mental  Force 

Upon  it 234 

Power  of  Fixing  the  Attention,  our  Chief  Kind 

of  Voluntary  Power 236 

The  Height  of  his  Ideal  in  Proportion  to  his 

Mental  Greatness 236 

Certain  Appropriate  Maxims 237 

II.  How  Best  to  Promote  his  own  Development 238-69 

1st.  He  Must  Do  All  Things  for  God 238-44 

God  a  Person  with  Personal  Relations  to  Men 238 

True  Thoughts  of  Him  the  Greatest  Possible  Stimu- 
lus to  the  Mind....  239 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGE 

The  Religious  Development  the  Highest  Attainable..  240 

Classical  and  Frigid,  Words  Falsely  Associated 241 

The  True  Characteristics  of  a  Christian  Scholar 243 

2dly.  He  Must  Keep  in  Full  Sympathy  with  the  Age...  244-6 

The  Scholar  Should  he  Practical 244 

One  who  Hoards  Knowledge,  the  Worst  of  Misers 245 

His  Age,  a  Scholar's  True  Field  of  Action 246 

The  Compensative  Tendencies  of  Scholars 246 

3dly.  He  Must  Keep  Himself  FuU  of  Work 246-56 

Work,  the  Law  of  Success 247 

Little  Mental  Occupation,  a  Cause  of  Ill-health 248 

No  One  Knows  his  Powers  Without  Trying  Them....  249 
The  Tendency  of  American  Scholarship  to  Haste  and 

Narrowness 250 

High  Hahits  of  Self-treatment  to  be  Cherished 250 

Two  Chief  Modes  of  Intellectual  Self-culture 251-4 

§  1.  The  Philosophic  and  Artistic  Study  of  Lan- 
guage   251-2 

§  2.  The  Practice  of  the  Art  of  Original  Compo- 
sition   253-4 

The  Gladsomeness  of  Right  Mental  Toil 255 

4thly.  He  must  Maintain  a  True  Treatment  of  his  Body.  256-63 

The  High  Relation  of  the  Body  to  the  Mind 256 

Its  Complicated  and  Wonderful  Organism 257 

The  Conditions  of  Health  Few  but  Imperative 258 

Necessity  of  Moderate  Eating 259 

Injurious  Effects  of  Tobacco,  even  Hereditarily 261 

Sthly.     He  Must  be  Full  of  Good  Cheer  and  Use  the 

Helps  Appointed  for  it 263-7 

Nature  Contrived  for  Man's  Perpetual  Refreshment...  264 

The  Ever-quickening  Pleasures  of  a  Thinker 265 

The  Folly  of  Restraining  Nature  by  Theory 266 

Hints  in  Conclusion  to  Young  Students 267-9 

V 

THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

WITH  THE  PROGRESS  AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ....  273-342 

The  Good  of  the  People,  the  Watchword  of  Chris- 
tianity   273-4 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

.  PAGE 

Diffusiveness  of  All  Good  Things,  its  Very  Genius...  275 

The  Universal  Wants  of  Humanity  are  Light  and  Love  276 

The  General  Mental  and  Moral  Inertia  of  the  Race..  278 
The  Only  Remedy  is  the  Higher  Christian  Education 

Made  General 279 

L  The  True  Theory  of  General  Education 279 

Each  Man  Deserves  as  Such  the  Highest  Develop- 
ment   280 

The  Common  Style  of  Education  Materialistic 281 

Toil  Without  Thought  to  Inspire  it  is  Mere  Brute  La- 
bor   282 

The  Elevation  of  the  Mass,  but  a  Mass  of  Individual 

Elevations 284= 

Each  One  Owes  to  All  the  Rest  His  Own  Greatest 

Cultivation 285 

Society  also  Owes  High  Duties  to  Each  Individual...  286 
The  State  Should  Foster  the   Higher  Institutions  of 

Learning  even  More  than  the  Lower. 287 

Their  Advantages  Should  be  Open  to  All 288 

Our  Present  College-system  Adapted  and  American..  289 
Their  True  Place,  that  of  the  German  Gymnasia....  290 
The  True  Fourfold  Scale  of  Our  Educational  Institu- 
tions   291 

What  Our  University-course  Should  Be 291-3 

The  Present  Low  State  of  our  Academies 294 

Some  Pleasing  Signs  of  Improvement 296 

Our  Common  Schools  Poorly  Officered 297 

The  True  Aim  of  the  Instruction  Furnished  in  Them  298 

Too  Much  Parade  in  Our  Educational  Work 299 

All  Such  Contrivances  Fail  of  their  End 300 

Only  Realities  Wanted  by  Society 301 

The  Alleged  Unnecessariness  of  High  Learning 302 

The  Influence  of  Honorary  Degrees  Injurious  on  the 

Work  of  Education 303-18 

The  Modes  and  Processes  of  their  Procurement 308-10 

Imitations  of  these  Honors  in  Low  Life 310 

American  Pretentiousness,  as  Seen  Abroad 811 

The  Littleness  of  Hankering  After  Degrees 312 

The  Church  the  Sustainer  of  the  System 314 

How  Different  Such  a  Spirit  from  that  of  Christ 315-16 


XV11  CONTENTS. 

PAQH 

In  What  Way  it  can  be  Broken  Up 317-20 

n.  The  Connection  of  the  Higher  Education  with  all  the 

Lower  Forms  of  Education 320-5 

The  True  Philosophy  of  all  Upward  Growths 321 

Men  Imitate  Spontaneously  Those  Above'  Them 322 

Where  Colleges  are  Poor,  Academies  will  be  Also....  323 

Men  Love  to  See  Right  Institutions  Grow  Stronger..  324 

Schools  and  Colleges,  the  Forts  and  Castles  of  the 

Land... 325 

III.  The  Necessity  of  the  Higher  Education  being  Thor- 
oughly Christian 325-34 

The  Difference  Between  Subjective   and  Objective 

Christianity 326 

Societyhas  the  Greatest  Possible  Interest  in  the  Wid- 
est Diffusion  of  True  Christianity 327 

§  1.  Especially  Among  its  Practical  Leaders 328-30 

§  2.  And  also  among  the  Educators  of  those  Lead- 
ers        330-1 

The  Mistake   made  by  Many  of  the  Relation  Be- 
tween Christianity  and  Education 332 

Why  Barbarism  will  Never  Bear  Away  Modern 

Civilization 333 

IV.  Some  of  the  Great  Results  Already  Achieved  by  Chris- 
tian Scholarship 334-41 

The  True  Sources  of  Power  Often  Invisible 334 

The  Progress  of  the  Age,  the  Progress  of  Thought...  335 

Material  Producers  have  very  Materialistic  Ideas 336 

True  Scholarship  Progressive  as  well  as  Conserva- 
tive           338 

Scepticism  and  Superstition,  both  Destroyed  by  Edu- 
cation   339 

The  Rulers  of  the  Age  its  Thinking  Working  Minds.       340-2 


INTRtTDUCTION 


THE  Author  feels  that  he  has  essayed  indeed 
a  great  theme.  But  having  in  his  life,  as  a  Teacher 
for  nearly  twenty  years,  sought  to  realize  in  practice 
the  ideas  here  expressed  in  words,  the  joy  of  the 
greater  labor  has  emboldened  him  to  undertake  the 
less.  However  much  the  statement  of  the  subject 
may  justify  itself,  on  its  very  announcement  ;  and 
however  familiar  the  combination  of  ideas  contained 
in  it  ought  to  be  ;  it  is  still,  strange  to  say,  not 
only  new  to  the  public  ear,  but  the  class  of  truths 
denoted  by  it  remains  yet  practically  undeveloped, 
as  a  whole,  in  the  world,  in  any  of  their  larger  pro- 
portions and  relations.  No  interests,  however,  need 
more  earnest  and  immediate  treatment,  than  those 
pertaining  to  the  Higher  Christian  Education  of  the 


11  INTRODUCTION. 

youth  of  this  age  and  country.  If  the  author  shall 
succeed  in  awakening  new  and  adequate  attention, 
in  any  direction,  to  the  momentous  work  of  rightly 
developing  the  mind  and  character  of  the  rising 
generation,  deep  will  be  the  satisfaction  that  his 
labor  has  not  only  been  lovingly,  but  also  efficiently, 
expended.  The  school,  rightly  conducted,  is  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  moving  forces,'  by  which  the  ad- 
vancement of  each  new  age  beyond  the  preceding 
one  is  to  be  accomplished.  How  great  the  pleas- 
ure of  doing  any  thing  to  deepen  and  widen  this 
conviction  in  the  community  ! 

Each  of  these  connected  treatises  was  intended  to 
be  a  distinct,  independent  treatment  of  the  topic 
contained  in  it,  by  itself ;  and  yet  the  topics  were 
chosen  in  reference  to  their  mutual  fitness  to  be 
gathered  together  into  one  group.  Some  of  the  sub- 
ordinate parts  accordingly,  come  into  view  again, 
from  time  to  time,  but  always  in  a  different  relation, 
and  for  another  use,  like  different  sides  of  the  same 
sphere  revolving  before  the  eye  ;  each  running,  as  a 
part  of  one  harmonious  whole,  into  and  out  of  the 
others  in  immediate  connection  with  it.  Whenever, 
therefore,  the  same  face  or  angle  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject comes  partially  into  view  again,  as  in  the 


INTRODUCTION.  HI 

similar  discussion  of  correlated  doctrines  in  theology 
or  philosophy,  if  it  has  before  received  a  full  treatment 
it  is  only  glanced  at,  anew,  and  presented  rather 
for  its  bearings  on  connected  parts,  than  for  what  it 
is  by  itself.  And  so,  if  there  is  at  any  time  a  sim- 
ilarity of  outline,  it  will  be  found  that  there  is  a 
variety  of  details  ;  or  if  there  should  occur  in  some 
places  a  general  correspondence  of  details,  they  will 
be  so  differently  grouped,  and  placed  in  such  a  dif- 
ferent light,  as  to  make  quite  another  scene,  and  to 
answer  entirely  other  ends.  It  is  hoped  that  all 
will  be  deemed  to  constitute  one  harmonious  whole 
with  no  part  lacking,  and  none  aggravated  beyond  its 
proper  dimensions. 

While  abuses  of  all  sorts,  dead  or  alive,  have  been 
freely  attacked,  if  demanded  by  a  determination  to  be 
just  and  true  in  spirit  to  so  great  a  theme,  no 
wanton  wish  or  willingness  has  been  consciously  in- 
dulged, to  denounce  or  satirize  any  class  of  men. 
And  yet  if  indifferentism,  which  is  so  prevalent  in 
this  world  towards  all  the  .great  things  of  Heaven 
and  earth,  be  one  of  the  worst  of  the  many  forms  of 
human  guilt,  can  any  one  who  sympathizes  with 
God  and  His  plans,  fail  to  feel,  that  it  is  nowhere 
more  misplaced  in  itself,  and  more  terrific  in  its 


IV  INTRODUCTION. 

results,  than  in  the  cause  of  the  Higher  Christian 
Education.  May  God  speed  this  divine  cause,  and 
if  the  feeble  attempt  here  made  can,  with  His  bless- 
ing, be  brought  to  subserve  its  advancement,  may 
He  give  it,  so  far,  favor  and  power  and  true  influ- 
ence, to  His  praise  ! 

D WIGHT'S  KUBAL  HIGH  SCHOOL,  CLINTON,) 
ONEIDA  Co.,  N.  Y.,  August  1,  1859.        f 


I. 


THE  TRUE  WORK  OF  THE  HIGHER 
CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION. 


THE    TEUE   WOKK   OF   THE   HIGHER 
CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION. 

THE  highest  result  of  any  form  of  civilization,  and 
therefore  the  brightest  and  topmost  flower  of  Chris- 
tianity, ought  to  be  found  in  its  system  of  Education  : 
in  the  perfection  of  beauty  visible  in  its  mode  of 
training  each  successive  generation  for  the  great 
work  of  life.  Here,  if  anywhere,  its  loftiest  tenden- 
cies should  be  sure  to  culminate  :  here  its  ripest 
fruits  should  hang  glittering  in  the  very  light  of 
Heaven.  But  were  the  Christianity  of  this  age 
subjected  to  such  a  test,  applied  unsparingly  to  the 
aims,  ideals,  processes,  appliances  and  issues  of  our 
present  style  of  education,  what  material  might  not 
the  infidel  find  for  his  false  and  foolish  boast,  that 
by  the  very  tenor  of  its  achievements  its  spirit  was 
proved  to  be  feeble  and  its  power  small,  ascribing, 
as  he  would  with  wicked  logic,  to  this  great  divine 


8  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

system  of  truths  and  influences  the  infirmities  pre- 
dicable  only  of  those  that  undertake  to  manage  its 
machinery. 

Our  subject  demands  a  twofold  treatment : 

I.  Of  the  nobility  of  the  Christian  teacher's 
vocation. 

II.  Of  some  of  its  normal  guiding  principles. 

I.  ITS  NOBILITY. — The  bearings  of  the  work  of 
Education  upon  the  progress  of  religion  ;  the  rela- 
tions of  the  school  to  the  great  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion ;  the  divinity  of  its  office,  work  and  power ; 
these  are  themes  which,  although  old  in  Heaven, 
are  verily  still  quite  new  in  this  world.  Trade, 
politics,  fashion,  the  constant  changes  of  the  times, 
and  all  the  petty  swell  and  fall  of  each  day's  small 
excitements,  suffice  to  occupy  fully  the  thoughts 
and  hearts  and  tongues  of  men.  But,  in  respect  to 
the  uplift  of  the  rising  generation  to  a  true  com- 
prehension of  its  duties,  interests  and  labors,  to 
whom  all  earth's  history,  literature,  art,  commerce, 
enterprise  and  religion  are  so  soon  to  be  com- 
mitted ;  and  who  are  to  have,  and  to  use,  accord- 
ing to  their  will,  all  that  this  world  contains  of 
good,  after  so  long  a  procession  of  great  influences 
upon  it :  whose  heart  seems  to  be  anywhere  ablaze 
with  high  and  strong  thoughts  concerning  so  divine 
an  undertaking  ?  In  the  City  Above,  all  their  ac- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  9 

cumulated  interest  during  centuries  of  hope  deferred 
for  man,  and  yet  of  ever-brooding  love  over  him, 
centres  in  the  work  that  is  to  be  done,  well  or 
poorly,  for  God  or  against  Him,  to  those  who  are  to 
receive,  from  this  generation,  the  mighty  trust  of 
the  world's  fate  and  fortunes.  And,  as  all  the 
vitality  and  vigor  of  a  plant,  when  in  its  perfect 
bloom,  are  spent  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  life 
of  its  successor,  so  the  proper  function  of  each  gen- 
eration of  men,  when  at  the  height  of  its  develop- 
ment, as  of  each  man  in  it  :  not  only  their  highest 
service,  but  also  their  appointed  work,  the  true 
divine  use  of  their  time  and  faculties  and  resources  : 
consists  in  laboring  to  prepare  the  next  generation 
to  fill  worthily  the  place  which  they  are  to  vacate 
for  them,  and  to  do  worthily  the  work  which  they 
are  to  drop  into  their  hands.  Looking  thus,  from 
an  earthward  stand-point,  upon  the  true  sphere  and 
scope  of  the  work  of  education,  how  vast  do  we  find 
its  dimensions  !  and  how  tremendous  the  pressure 
of  its  wants  upon  a  heart  of  true  sensibility  towards 
God  or  man  !  And  how  would  the  highest  possible 
earthly  estimate  of  its  claims  be  aggrandized,  could 
we  but  look  at  it  ourselves  from  a  Heavenward 
point  of  observation  !  Could  we  but  get  some  true 
gauge  of  the  vast  inward  dignity  of  the  human  soul, 
as  immortal  and  divine,  and  could  we  feel  the  power 
of  the  world  to  come  upon  our  hearts,  in  all  its 


10  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

magnificence  of  wonder  and  fruition,  the  employ- 
ment of  training  one  little  child  to  act  well  its 
part,  here  and  hereafter,  would  appear  at  once  to 
be  grand  and  godlike.  Can  the  blight  of  sin  upon 
the  tenderest  sympathies  and  warmest  impulses  of 
the  human  heart,  be  anywhere  found  more  plain 
and  terrible  than  in  the  cold,  neglectful  indifference 
of  men,  at  large,  to  the  highest  and  best  interests 
of  the  young  ?  And  when  we  remember  how  great 
is  the  furniture  of  latent  capabilities  in  every  one, 
and  how  much  more  each  man  has  in  his  nature 
than  either  circumstances  or  his  own  highest  in- 
dustry have  ever  made  visible,  and  how  many  more 
might  have  been  evoked,  by  grand  crises  or  great 
impelling  motives  exciting  them  to  action,  into  a 
gigantic  demonstration  of  themselves  on  every 
varied  field  of  human  effort,  what  an  array  of  splen- 
did possibilities  presents  itself  before  the  true 
Christian  teacher  in  his  work  ! 

And,  yet,  no  profession  stands  in  less  honor 
with  the  ignoble  mass  of  minds,  proved  ignoble  by 
so  low  an  estimate  of  so  high  a  calling,  than  that 
involving  the  labor  and  the  art  and  the  joy  of 
fashioning  the  inward  man  to  all  nobleness,  accord- 
ing to  the  patterns  of  things  in  the  skies.  A 
painter,  who  but  copies  a  likeness  of  the  mere  face 
of  flesh,  which  is  so  soon  to  crumble  back  to  dust ; 
a  sculptor,  who  only  carves,  in  cold  and  silent 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN     EDUCATION.  11 

marble,  an  image  of  our  form  of  clay ;  or,  a  poet, 
who  merely  describes  a  man  when  performing  some 
great  action,  or  enjoying  the  repose  to  which  it  en- 
titles him,  in  order  to  prepare  himself  for  a  greater  : 
these  are,  each  of  them,  honored  as  artists,  and 
even  worshipped  for  their  genius.  But  what  of 
him  who,  with  multiform  toil  and  skill,  slowly  but 
surely  shapes  the  mind,  the  immortal  mind  itself, 
into  every  possible  form  of  strength  and  grace,  and 
who  adorns,  it  with  all  those  intellectual  and  moral 
excellences  of  which  physical  beauty,  wherever 
found  or  introduced,  is  but  a  faint  shadow  in  mere 
material  forms  and  aspects  ?  What  of  him  who 
makes  the  very  man  what  he  is,  whom  others  seek 
to  find  fixed  somewhere,  in  his  life,  in  an  engaging 
attitude  for  their  pencil,  pen  or  graver  ?  He  is 
thought  by  the  majority  of  observers  to  have 
marked  out  for  himself  a  very  insignificant  course 
of  life,  which  no  one  could  possibly  pursue  who  was 
not  forced  to  it,  by  lack  of  means  or  want  of  suc- 
cess, in  some  other  sphere  of  action.  The  concep- 
tion that  there  is  in  his  high  calling  any  thing,  or 
rather  every  thing,  fitted  to  inspire  genius,  to  set  on 
fire  the  whole  soul  with  divine  enthusiasm,  and  to 
summon  forth  a  giant  heart  upon  a  pathway  of 
ever-abounding  activity  and  joy  in  its  service, 
would  seem  strange,  if  not  ridiculous,  to  multi- 
tudes. Some  can  understand  how  one  might  find, 


12  THE    TKUE    WORK    OF    THE 

perchance,  in  a  president's  or  professor's  chair,  a 
little  pleasure,  or,  at  least,  excitement,  in  the  work 
of  teaching  ;  for  there  is  honor  in  the  name.  What 
a  bauble  !  Honor  is  not  a  thing  of  circumstance, 
but  of  character  ;  not  of  titles,  but  of  actions. 
But  how,  the  wonder  is,  how  can  any  one  find 
aught  to  captivate  and  stir  his  soul  in  the  dull, 
prosaic  life  of  a  schoolmaster  ?  In  many  commu- 
nities, indeed,  this  honorable  designation  stands  in 
very  much  the  same  repute,  for  dignity,  as  the 
names  tinker,  cobbler,  peddler,  and  the  like.  And, 
to  make  the  marvel  perpetual,  that  any  should  ever 
admire  the  employment  of  a  practical  teacher,  so- 
ciety pertinaciously  closes,  and  keeps  closed  with 
iron-handed  obstinacy,  every  door  to  genius  in  this 
divine  occupation,  but  that  which,  by  the  help  of 
God,  it  forces  open  for  itself:  offering  ordinarily 
but  a  pittance  for  one's  support,  and  withholding 
the  praise  which  it  bestows  on  the  same  amount  of 
talent  in  every  other  field  of  demonstration  ;  while, 
to  complete  its  all  but  positive  interdict,  practi- 
cally, upon  a  calling  so  noble  in  itself,  and  so  neces- 
sary to  its  own  continued  life  and  power,  it  stands 
and  gazes  agape,  in  stupid  wonder,  at  such  as  can 
hear,  amid  the  Babel  voices  of  this  world,  any  loud 
call  without,  or  feel  any  warm  impulse  stirring 
within,  to  enter  into  its  delightful  labors.  Men 
have  an  eye  for  vaulting,  momentary  heroism  ;  but, 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  13 

for  that  of  ever- repeated,  earnest,  glowing,  unselfish 
toil  for  others,  whether  itself  seen  or  unseen  and 
whether  admired  or  even  despised,  embanked  and 
embowered,  like  a  strong  stream  running  through 
deep  channels,  in  the  truths  and  the  promises  of 
God,  it  has  no  appreciation. 

The  cause  of  God  is  thus  not  only  everywhere 
cheapened  in  this  world  ;  but  even  the  very  mode 
and  style  of  His  perpetual  joyous  employment  of 
His  own  infinite  powers  and  resources.  The  grand, 
ever-active  life  of  God  Himself  is  that  of  a  great, 
wise,  infinitely  tender  and  watchful  educator  of  all 
His  children.  He  made  the  physical  universe,  in 
order  to  people  it  with  happy,  intelligent  beings, 
fashioned  in  his  own  image,  to  enjoy  his  high  com- 
pany forever.  Arid,  when  having  made  the  theatre 
for  their  action,  and  themselves  to  occupy  it,  what 
remains  to  be  done  but  to  develop  and  perfect 
them  for  his  own  blissful  communion  !  Thus  the 
very  end  of  creation  itself  is  Education  ;  and  the 
glory  of  God,  as  a  Creator,  terminates  in  his  glory 
as  an  Educator.  Surely  what  engages  his  great 
attributes  and  resources,  at  all  times,  in  full  exer- 
cise, may  well  employ  ours  ;  and  what  suffices  to 
fill  his  boundless  nature  with  joy,  will  suffice  cer- 
tainly to  fill  our  own.  In  nothing  does  He  admit 
us  into  such  grand  intimacy  with  himself,  as  in  the 
work  of  fashioning  character,  and  of  opening  and 


14  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF   THE 

directing  forever  the  latent  capabilities  and  possible 
destinies  of  the  immortal  mind.  Such,  yes  !  such 
is  the  vocation  that  even  Christian  men  consider, 
among  the  commonest  in  the  world,  appropriate,  in 
its  very  aims  and  terms,  for  men  of  phlegmatic 
mould,  who  have  not  energy  enough  for  traffic  or 
political  contention,  or  any  such  talents  as  would 
make  them  shine  in  some  sphere  of  ostentatious 
self-exhibition ;  while,  all  the  time,  no  calling  re* 
quires  such  a  breadth  of  preparation  in  order  to 
meet  its  real  demands  ;  none  such  a  variety  of  all 
high  characteristics  in  combination  ;  and  none  so 
much  energy  bodily,  intellectual  and  spiritual,  for 
its  right  execution.  Shame  on  such  base  thoughts 
as,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  put  open  dishonor 
on  man's  nature  and  on  God's  ;  as  well  as  on  all 
the  deep  spiritual  mystery  of  this  life  and  the 
splendors  of  the  life  to  come,  opening,  in  full  view, 
before  the  soul  that  is  truly  trained  to  receive  and 
enjoy  them.  All  Nature  waits  on  man,  to  light 
him  on  his  way  to  Heaven  :  the  mountains  stand 
in  their  quiet  strength  around  him,  as  if  the  very 
sentinels  of  God,  to  see  that  he  has  time  and  space 
for  his  work  of  high  self-advancement.  For  this 
the  stars  watch  over  him  in  their  courses  ;  and  for 
this,  like  ministering  angels,  the  seasons  come  and 
go  in  the  revolving  circle  of  the  year.  Nothing  on 
earth  is  great  but  man :  man,  made  to  be  within 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  15 

the  outward  temple  of  nature  erected  for  his  wor- 
ship, himself  the  soul-temple  of  Him  who,  while  he 
dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands,  does 
dwell  with  him  who  is  of  an  humble  and  a  contrite 
heart.  "  Lord  !  what  is  man  !  "  how  grand  are  the 
proportions  of  his  being  !  "  that  thou  shouldest  be 
mindful  of  him,  and  the  Son  of  man,  that  thou 
shouldest  visit  him  !  "  For  six  thousand  years  has 
God  brooded  lovingly  over  our  race,  in  the  outward 
world  of  sight  and  sound,  so  full  of  change  ;  and  in 
all  the  inward  consciousness  of  ever  wakeful  thought, 
in  order  to  attract  us,  one  and  all,  in  our  affections, 
to  himself.  Hail  therefore  to  the  men  that  enter, 
unattended  by  the  crowd,  into  the  deep  sympathies 
of  His  great  nature,  the  very  Holy  of  Holies  in  his 
heart ;  and  that  earnestly  employ  their  time  and 
strength  in  the  same  sublime  sphere  of  interest  and 
action  in  which  he  occupies  his  whole  being.  This 
was  the  business  of  which  the  Great  Teacher  spoke, 
when  he  said  to  the  mass  of  indifferent  and  unem- 
ployed listeners  around  him,  dull-eyed  to  all  true 
conceptions  of  either  God's  nature  or  their  own, 
"  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business  ! "  and  this  was  the  work  to  which  he  al- 
luded, at  another  time,  when  he  said,  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work." 

Like   what    "a   crackling   therefore    of    thorns 
under  a  pot,"  full  of  noise  without  sense,  does  it 


16  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

seem  to  one,  whose  ear  is  open  to  such  voices,  to 
hear  a  parent  say,  as  so  many  do  virtually,  and 
some  even  openly,  to  a  son :  "  Choose  any  calling 
but  that  of  a  schoolmaster  or  a  clergyman,"  as  if 
there  were  any  offices  so  high,  to  be  filled  or  found 
out  of  Heaven,  "for  nowhere  will  you  find  such 
toil,  and  nowhere  such  poor  pay."  What  pettiness 
is  this  !  How  do  such  forget  that  man  does  not 
.live  by  bread  alone  !  There  was  a  peculiar  signifi- 
cance in  the  appointment  of  the  great  temptation 
of  bread  to  the  Saviour,  as  his  first  trial  in  entering 
on  public  life,  as  it  is  under  the  pressure  of  this 
temptation  that  men  everywhere  so  readily  suc- 
cumb. Bread  !  bread  !  the  body  !  time  !  mam- 
mon !  these  are  the  watchwords  of  the  Evil  One  in 
all  ages.  But  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesseth.  There 
is  an  inner  life  of  the  heart,  a  life  full  of  deep,  glad 
thoughts,  affections  and  impulses,  following  each 
other  in  a  broad  and  constant  outflow  and  overflow, 
of  which  such  earthly  minds  know  nothing :  the 
life  of  a  magnanimous  nature,  ever  waiting,  like 
God  himself,  to  be  gracious  unto  all,  and  to  com-' 
municate,  without  let  or  hindrance,  the  riches  of 
its  goodness  unto  the  whole  world  of  men  around. 

In  the  many  appeals  made  to  the  young,  in 
either  brief  occasional  addresses  from  our  most 
thoughtful  earnest  men,  or  in  those  more  formally 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  17 

prepared,  with  a  full  circumspection  of  life  and  its 
high  demands,  for  our  selectest  college  assemblies, 
who  has  ever  witnessed  an  effort  to  stir  their  spirit 
of  patriotism,  or  of  general  philanthropy,  or  of  large 
Christian  usefulness,  by  the  claims  and  the  charms 
of  the  work  of  education  ?  Where  is  the  professed 
teacher  even  who  is  known  to  publicly  magnify  his 
office  as  unsurpassed,  if  not  unequalled,  by  any 
other  in  beauty,  honor,  power  and  joy  ?  And, 
even  in  respect  to  the  chances  of  emolument,  which 
so  many  covet  as  the  chief  recommendation  of  any 
employment ;  although  those  having  such  thoughts, 
only  or  chiefly,  are  interdicted,  by  their  very  lust 
for  gold,  from  entering  truly  into  a  vocation  that 
demands  the  utmost  purity  of  sentiment  and  pur- 
pose, in  reference  to  both  its  objects  and  its  sub- 
jects :  what  might  not  be  said,  in  behalf  of  a  profes- 
sion, where  so  many  openings  for  enterprise  abound, 
as  well  as  so  many  opportunities  for  introducing 
higher  standards  and  ideals  of  achievement ;  and 
where  noble  aims  and  efforts  will  be  sure  to  place 
their  happy  possessor,  in  such  glorious  contrast  with 
a  vast  crowd  of  laborers  in  the  same  field? 

We  hear  the  three  learned  professions  often 
alluded  to,  law,  theology  and  medicine  ;  as  if  there 
were  not  three  times  three  ;  as,  those  of  education 
also  and  of  editorship,  practical  chemistry,  civil  en- 
gineering, architectural  and  mechanical  drafting 


18  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

and  public  lecturing.  Could  any  greater  tradition- 
ary absurdity  be  perpetrated  than  that  of  leaving 
out  from  among  the  learned  professions  the  one,  on 
which  they  all  depend  for  their  very  existence  ; 
especially,  when  the  title  itself,  Doctor  or  Teacher, 
given  to  him  who  excels  in  them,  is  one  denoting 
the  fact,  that  now  its  honored  recipient  is  deemed 
capable  of  instructing  novices,  in  the  elements  of 
his  vocation  !  And  what  a  double  dishonor  is  done 
to  the  work  of  education,  in  not  only  taking  away 
its  name,  as  a  profession,  but  also  in  transferring 
the  very  title  of  those  engaged  in  it  to  others. 

Let  no  one  enter  upon  the  sublime  work  of  the 
Educator,  whose  own  high  appreciation  of  its  value 
does  not  impel,  or,  at  least,  attract  him  to  its  de- 
lightful labors.  Mean  thoughts  will  infallibly  break 
forth,  from  beneath  the  surface  of  whatever  enter- 
prise we  undertake  with  them.  Let  only  such  come 
into  this  sacred  employment  as  have  heard,  in  the 
depths  of  a  consciousness  illuminated  with  God's 
felt  presence,  His  voice  summoning  them  impera- 
tively hither.  All  true  hearts  have  a  call  from 
him,  to  do  what  he  appoints  ;  and  no  one  is  asked 
of  God  to  teach,  whose  heart  is  not  aglow  with  love 
to  him  and  to  man,  as  his  child,  and  who  does  not 
feel  that  nothing  on  earth  has  charms  to  his  soul  like 
the  joy  of  training  his  own  heart,  and  the  hearts 
of  others,  to  all  manliness  and  godliness.  Call 


HIGHER     CHRISTIAN    EDUCAT 

it  enthusiasm,  who  will ;  still  the  fact 
no  man  ever  undertakes  to  imbed  his  own  ch* 
and  life,  deeply  and  permanently,  in  his  age,  whose 
heart  is  not  on  fire  with  the  thought  that  he  is 
working  for  God.  Under  the  power  of  .instincts, 
bruised  and  broken  it  is  true,  but  yet  divine,  the 
ancients  felt  the  near  approach  of  their  imaginary 
gods  in  every  thing,  and  introduced  them  into  all 
their  philosophy,  poetry,  history  and  art  ;  and,  in 
their  dramas,  they  actually  brought  them  down 
from  above,  by  formal  machinery,  upon  the  stage. 
A  present  deity  was  the  necessary  seasoning  to  a 
Greek's  mind,  of  every  thing  seen  or  done  in  life. 
Here  was  the  power  of  divination,  of  augury,  of  the 
priesthood  and  of  those  oracles,  which,  heard  every- 
where as  the  voice  of  God,  could,  at  any  time,  set 
the  whole  world  in  motion,  or  bring  it  to  a  sudden 
solemn  pause.  Thus  Homer's  heroes  were  all,  to 
the  mass  around  them,  Jove-born.  So,  Numa  had 
nightly  interviews  with  the  goddess  Egeria  ;  and 
Socrates  was  guided  by  an  attending  genius.  And, 
so,  the  most  wonderful  of  all  human  lives,  for  aim 
and  scope  and  energy  and  issue,  the  Apostle  Paul's, 
became  what  it  was,  under  the  inspiration  of  that 
great  Master,  who  made  it  His  own  meat  and  drink 
to  do  his  Father's  will,  by  the  purpose  to  know 
nothing  among  his  fellow-men  but  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Crucified.  The  star  of  destiny,  of  which  Napoleon 


20  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

so  often  spoke,  was,  in  Luther's  mouth,  the  word 
and  the  will  of  God.  So  is  it  always  :•  no  man  is 
really  great  whose  eye  is  not  ever  fixed  on  what  is 
beyond  and  above.  The  moral  hero  is  such,  be- 
cause he  seems  to  himself  to  stand,  at  all  times, 
under  a  vast  overshadowing  future,  as  under  the 
brow  of  some  high  mount  of  solemn  vision.  God 
seems  over  him  and  around  him  and  within  him. 
His  life  holds  its  place,  as  the  full  moon  to  the  sun, 
directly  over  against  a  divine  object,  and  is,  in  all 
its -light  and  strength,  but  the  manifestation  of  his 
conceptions  of  its  attractions  and  demands.  "Cast 
ye  down  her  battlements  ;  for  they  are  not  the 
Lord's" — is  a  sentence  written  by  the  angel  of 
death,  not  only  on  the  walls  of  ancient  Jerusalem, 
but  also  on  all  other  human  walls  and  human  plans, 
that  are  built  in  a  state  of  separation  from  God. 

Let  no  one  therefore  venture,  heedlessly  or  com- 
plainingly,  into  this  greatest  of  all  human  callings  ; 
for  he  goes  with  such  a  spirit  into  the  very  work 
and  presence  of  God,  as  a  horse  into  the  battle,  not 
knowing  that  it  is  for  his  life.  My  brethren,  saith 
the  Divine  word,  "  be  not  many  "  of  you  "  masters  " 
or  Teachers  ;  "  knowing  that  thereby,"  that  is,  if 
unfaithful,  "  ye  shall  receive  the  greater  condemna- 
tion." But  let  not  him,  who  finds  a  soldier's  zeal 
stirring  in  his  veins  to  do  battle  in  so  large  a  field, 
tremble  or  pause,  because  of  the  greatness  of  the 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  21 

undertaking.  God  will  aid  him  ;  and,  if  man 
thinks  lightly  of  his  toils,  Heaven  does  not.  To 
such  an  one,  if  to  any  upon  earth,  God  is  ever 
beckoning  to  mount  upwards,  with  ever  new  glad- 
ness of  spirit,  into  His  own  blissful  company  and 
communion  forever. 

In  many  things,  the  work  of  true  Christian 
education  is  above  that  of  the  ministry  ;  if  not  in 
its  aims,  yet  in  the  variety,  adaptation  and  power 
of  its  appliances,  and  in  the  immediateness,  deter- 
minateness  and  perpetually  renewed  productiveness 
of  the  results  gained  by  their  use.  The  minister 
teaches  indeed,  but  he  does  not  train.  .He  teaches 
at  intervals,  while  the  Educator  does  his  work  of 
love  from  day  to  day.  The  preacher  points  to  the 
right  path,  but  he  cannot  make  his  hearers  walk  in 
it  ;  he  cannot  constrain  the  will  and  bind  it  firmly 
to  its  duty  ;  nor  can  he  use  the  power  of  personal 
authority  and  discipline,  or  bring  his  own  entire  in- 
dividuality, with  all  its  freight  of  knowledge,  prin- 
ciple and  power,  to  bear  upon  his  people,  as  can 
the  teacher  upon  his  pupils.  He  devotes  his  efforts 
also  to  those  whose  habits  have  become  thoroughly 
indurated  by  length  of  time,  and  who  have  long 
since  lost  their  fresh  and  natural  sensibility  to  the 
truth.  The  very  hearts,  all  full  of  the  fire  and  flow 
of  youth,  which  he  neglects,  the  hope  of  the  world 
and  of  the  church,  are  those  on  whom  the  Teacher 


22  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

exerts  all  his  energy,  plastic  under  the  gentlest 
touches  of  his  hand,  and  tenderly  responsive  to  all 
his  ideas  and  feelings. 

To  be  a  true  Teacher,  of  the  highest  dimensions 
of  power  and  qualification,  requires  a  breadth  of 
resources  and  qualities  natural  and  acquired,  a 
depth  and  fulness  of  means,  tact  in  impressing  one's 
self  on  others  amounting  almost  to  a  species  of  per- 
sonal magnetism,  skill  in  government,  talent  in  ex- 
position, power  in  analysis,  fulness  of  knowledge, 
readiness  of  illustration,  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  in 
nature,  art  and  language,  a  simplicity  of  character, 
a  singleness  of  aim,  a  patience  of  spirit,  a  steadiness 
of  purpose,  an  acquaintance  with  human  nature 
and  a  development  of  religious  feeling  and  principle, 
as  well  as  an  energy  of  will,  a  fire  of  thought  and 
an  amount  of  physical  vigor ;  which,  assembled 
together,  make  this  field  of  human  endeavor  alto- 
gether paramount  to  every  other  in  its  demands 
upon  the  whole  man,  his  whole  time,  his  whole 
heart,  and  his  whole"  strength  within  and  without, 
at  all  times,  in  all  things.  No  marvel  is  it  that 
there  are  so  many  poor  teachers  !  for  in  no  other 
style  of  man  is  such  a  height  and  breadth  of  man- 
hood necessary. 

II.  Some  of  the  great  normal  principles,  of  the 
true  mode  of  conducting  the  Higher  Christian  .Edu- 
cation. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  23 

1st.  Its  great,  all-informing  life  and  spirit  must 
be  true,  earnest,  practical  Christianity. 

"  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  !  "  what  a  volume 
of  meaning  is  there  in  these  few  bright  words  of 
Revelation  !  All  truth  flows  out  from  Him  upon 
the  universe,  and,  dispensing  its  blessings  every- 
where, circles  round  again,  with  its  results,  through 
all  the  vast  circumference  of  things,  to  the  same 
grand  reservoir  in  his  heart  from  which  it  started. 
He  is  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life.  Science, 
history,  nature,  providence,  experience,  all  point  to 
Him  as  the  centre  of  every  thing  great*  and  good  : 
the  All  in  all,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  for- 
ever. No  motor-power  can  be  applied  to  the  in- 
tellect and  heart  of  teacher  or  scholar,  like  love  to 
him.  Every  other  influence  is  finite,  in  its  scope 
and  duration.  No  stimulus  to  effort  is  worthy  of 
man's  nature,  of  his  high  powers,  of  his  possible 
attainments  and  pleasures,  and  of  that  unending, 
gorgeous  future,  of  which  his  life  here  is  but  the 
vestibule,  except  that  of  Christ's  love  to  him  and 
his  love  to  Christ.  Under  the  power  of  steady, 
burning  affection  for  him,  all  tendencies  to  waste  of 
talent  or  of  time,  all  aimless,  objectless  habits  of 
thought  will  disappear  as  tow  before  the  fire.  In 
right  relations  to  him,  perpetual  joy  will  be  ever 
coursing  through  the  heart,  turning  what  others 
deem  life's  burdens  into  its  greatest  pleasures  ; 


24  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

since,  carried  for  him,  they  become  labors  of  love, 
offerings  of  friendship  of  a  sweet  odor,  not  only  to 
him  but  also  to  the  heart  that  bears  them  into  his 
presence.  With  what  full  concentration  of  energy 
and  delight  can  a  Teacher,  under  the  power  of  com- 
plete devotion  to  Jesus  Christ,  address  himself  to 
his  cherished  work  :  cherished  in  itself,  as  having 
great  dimensions  of  its  own,  cherished  in  its  rela- 
tions to  all  his  personal  aptitudes  of  thought,  feel- 
ing and  action,  and  cherished,  above  all,  in  its  rela- 
tions of  service  to  him  who  made  man,  and  made 
him  to  be  his  own  glorious  temple  forever.  How 
can  such  an  one  be  literally  anxious  for  nothing, 
except  to  please  him  who  hath  called  him  to  enter, 
with  Himself,  into  His  own  high  labor  of  love. 

There  has  been  so  little  good  education  in  the 
world,  as  there  has  been  also  so  little  good  govern- 
ment in  it,  because  what  toil  has  been  expended 
has  not  been  expended  for  him.  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  march  of  the  ages  has  been  so  slow,  and 
that  each  generation  in  succession  advances  so  little, 
and  with  such  an  agony  of  effort,  beyond  the  one 
preceding.  It  is  the  perpetuation  of  poor,  imper- 
fect education  at  home  and  at  school  that  keeps  up 
such  a  perpetuation  of  sin  and  sorrow  in  the  world. 
When  every  one  teaches  for  him  and  studies  for 
him,  with  no  stinted  outlay  of  time  and  money  and 
effort,  summoning  with  gladness  every  moment, 


HIGHER   CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  25 

every  thought  and  every  faculty  and  appliance,  to 
the  work  of  glorifying  him  in  all  things,  what  an 
irrepressible  outburst  of  all  manliness  and  heroism, 
and  earnest  intellectual  activity,  and  of  high  litera- 
ture, and  of  philosophy  and  poetry,  and  all  human 
greatness  and  goodness,  will  be  exhibited  over  the 
whole  face  of  human  society  !  What  an  argument 
therefore  does  the  present  sad  state  of  our  world 
thunder  in  our  ears,  for  a  radical  and  universal  re- 
form in  the  work  of  education  !  This  earth  made 
with  such  variety  and  fulness  of  preparation,  to  be 
the  outer  court  of  the  world  above,  has  become  but 
the  purlieus  of  perdition.  Practical  heathenism 
everywhere  prevails.  The  world  is  in  a  heath- 
state  :  deserts  abound,  where  the  lily  of  the  val- 
ley, the  rose  of  Sharon  and  the  cedars  of  Lebanon, 
the  Lord's  cedars  for  the  Lord's  house,  should  be 
found  in  abundance. 

To  the  ancients  the  highest  stimulus  to  action, 
was  the  desire  of  fame.  To  many  a  man  in  Chris- 
tendom, a  higher  impulse  has  come,  although  not 
the  highest,  from  a  sort  of  general  ethical  sense  of 
duty,  which  has  been  but  a  merely  intensified  ex- 
pression for  private  honor  or  public  expectation. 
Thus  Bonaparte  used  to  say  that  he  hated  the 
English,  because  they  were  always  talking  so  much 
about  duty  ;  and  so  Lord  Nelson  said  at  Trafalgar, 

"  England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty."     But 
2 


26  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

how  different  in  its  power  to  stir  the  conscience  and 
to  sway  the  life  in  any  field  of  effort,  is  the  sense 
of  duty,  as  a  mere  philosophical  or  poetical  abstrac- 
tion, a  misty  phantom  of  the  half  awakened  moral 
nature,  compared  with  the  vision  of  duty  as  an  an- 
gel full  of  heavenly  beauty  from  on  high,  and  as  but 
another  name  for  the  obligation  to  love  and  serve 
Jesus  Christ  in  all  things,  who  is  the  bright  and 
morning-star  of  time  and  the  glory  of  eternity. 
Whether  for  action  or  endurance,  whether  for  height 
of  aim,  or  breadth  of  movement  or  depth  of  pur- 
pose, whether  for  energy  of  mind  or  health  of  body, 
whether  for  greatness  of  results  to  others  or  of  en- 
joyment to  one's  self,  there  is  nothing  in  the  uni- 
verse, that  can  be  for  a  moment  substituted  for 
direct,  earnest,  practical  love  to  the  Saviour ;  and 
there  is  nothing,  which,  brought  into  comparison 
with  it,  is  not  infinitely  disparaged  by  the  con- 
trast. 

2dly.  The  higher  Christian  education  must  be 
conducted  on  the  principle  that  the  body  is  made 
for  the  mind,  rather  than  the  mind  for  the  body. 

Simple  as  this  statement  is,  its  just  inferences 
will  be  found  to  be  quite  antagonistic  to  many  of 
the  prevailing  ideas  and  modes  of  education.  The 
power  of  matter  over  mind  is  very  great,  and  far 
more  determinative  of  individual  and  social  devel- 
opment than  most  imagine  ;  and  bodily  organiza- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  27 

tion  and  temperament  have  much  more  to  do  with 
the  varieties  of  intellectual  manifestation  and  moral 
character,  than  is  generally  allowed  ;  hut  greater 
"by  far  is  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body, 
over  its  health,  its  energy  and  its  "beauty.  There 
is  no  stimulus  to  the  circulatory,  nervous  or  even 
muscular  system,  equal  for  real  inward  vitality  to 
that  of  an  ever-active,  eager,  joyous  mind,  perpet- 
ually travelling  on  high  courses  of  thought  and 
feeling,  towards  great  commanding  objects.  Heroes 
are  always  hale  :  their  very  thoughts  give  vigor  to 
their  nerves  ;  and  men,  in  the  full  tide  of  activity 
and  prosperity  in  business,  are  usually  men  of 
abounding  health.  Success  is  on  this  principle,  a 
great  minister  to  the  welfare  of  the  body.  In  this 
lies  the  benefit  of  travel :  it  stimulates  the  mind, 
which  in  turn  excites  to  favorable  action,  by  the 
impulse  of  its  cheerful  sprightly  moods  of  feeling, 
all  the  forces  of  the  material  organism,  with  which 
it  is  so  strangely  and  delicately  interlinked.  The 
true  hygiene  of  the  body  is  mental  and  moral 
hygiene.  Grief  wastes,  care  deadens,  and  anxiety 
corrodes  all  the  inward  subtle  vitalities  of  our  being. 
Hence  the  physiological,  as  well  as  spiritual,  beauty 
oY  the  rule  appointed  for  us  by  our  great  Maker : 
rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,  and  again  I  say  rejoice  ! 
Joy  is  ever  the  deep  abiding  possession  of  God's 
heart  ;  and  as  our  hearts  are  fashioned  to  be  like 


28  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

His,  although  in  such  diminutive  proportions  for 
height  and  scope.,  such  is  the  state  ordained  for  us, 
to  the  inspiring  vitalizing  influence  of  which  the 
working  of  all  our  faculties  is  adjusted.  Hence  the 
wicked,  who  are  like  the  troubled  sea  casting  up 
mire  and  dirt,  are  not  to  live  out  half  their  days  ; 
while  the  righteous  shall  flourish  like  the  green 
bay-tree  ;  and  hence  also  the  command  to  children 
to  obey  their  parents,  that  they  may  live  long  in  the 
land. 

The  great  determining  laws,  .therefore,  of  our 
compound  nature  are  the  laws  of  the  mind.  The 
body  is  made  for  the  mind,  as  its  tabernacle  and 
its  movable  apparatus  of  mechanical  powers,  and  is 
adapted  skilfully  to  it  in  all  its  relations,  suscepti- 
bilities and  uses,  as  an  engine  to  the  force  which  is 
to  diffuse  its  energy  through  all.  its  springs  and 
wheels.  The  conditions  therefore  of  vigor,  enlarge- 
ment and  conscious  pleasure,  perpetually,  to  the 
mind,  are  the  conditions  by  which  the  time, 
aims  and  enterprise  of  the  whole  man  should  be 
gauged. 

And  what  are  these  conditions  ?  They  are 
two-fold.  The  first  of  them  is  ceaseless  activity  in 
gaining  knowledge  ;  so  as  to  come,  both  receptively 
and  potentially,  into  full  relationship,  with  the 
spirit  and  the  understanding,  to  the  surrounding 
universe,  with  which  it  has  already  so  fixed  and 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  29 

formal  a  connection ;  and  the  second  is  a  constant 
earnest  outlay  of  power,  as  a  cause,  adequate  to 
work  effects  of  its  own  :  ever  asserting  its  appointed 
superiority  over  all  obstacles  in  its  way  :  taking 
the  helm,  by  the  divine  right  of  its  immortal  nature, 
over  all  the  forces  and  circumstances  of  life  ;  and, 
when  acting  according  to.  its  noblest  capabilities, 
lavishly  bestowing  its  acquisitions  and  energies 
upon  others,  for  their  profit  and  their  joy.  For 
ceaseless  action  work  and  progress,  the  mind  is 
made.  Without  opportunity  for  them,  it  stagnates 
at  once  within  itself.  Ennui,  the  only  other  ele- 
ment necessary  to  be  added  in  full  strength  to  a 
deep  damning  sense  of  guilt,  to  make  a  hell  on 
earth  within  the  soul  itself,  extinguishes  in  its  dark 
abyss  every  treasure  and  pleasure  given  to  us  from 
above.  No  wonder  that  men  of  vacant  heads  and 
hearts  desire,  and  laugh  wildly  when  uttering  the 
wish,  "  to  kill  Time,"  himself  indeed  their  best 
friend,  but  made  by  their  own  misconduct  their 
worst  enemy ;  and  that  they  call  their  boisterous 
mirth,  in  attempting  to  do  it,  pastime. 

But  have  not  many,  even  good  men,  intellectual 
men  and  professional  educators  too,  views  which  are, 
practically  at  least,  quite  at  variance  with  these  ? 
What  multitudes  on  earth  spoil  nature,  truth,  re- 
ligion, life  and  art,  by  their  own  false  theories,  for 
themselves  and  others.  The  mass  of  men  are  in- 


30  THE    TRUE   WORK   OF    THE 

deed  but  mere  tinkers  with  themselves  and  with 
every  thing  on  which  they  lay  their  hands.  Com- 
mend us  to  the  man  who  receives  every  thing  nat- 
urally into  the  depths  of  his  being  from  without, 
and  goes  forth  naturally  with  his  whole  soul  to 
every  outward  object  from  within.  Who  knows 
where  such  men  are  to  be  found  ?  Not  so  perti- 
naciously absurd  are  the  Flathead  Indians,  in  try- 
ing to  alter  the  appointed  shape  of  the  head,  or  the 
Chinese,  that  of  the  foot,  or  a  Parisian  belle,  that  of 
the  waist,  as  are  vast  numbers  of  even  intelligent 
men,  in  imposing  on  their  hearts  and  on  their 
minds  the  unnatural  restraints  often  called  fash- 
ionable or  politic,  which  they  have  invented,  to  the 
full  free  outburst  and  force  of  their  inner  life  :  thus 
setting  aside  with  their  follies,  whether  self- origina- 
ted or  traditionary,  the  very  ordinances  of  God. 

How  many  parents,  students  and  teachers,  of 
every  grade  of  talent  and  knowledge,  suppose  that 
there  is  something  very  exhausting  and  even  dan- 
gerous in  protracted  earnest  study  ;  and  that  one 
must  treat  both  his  body  and  mind,  in  respect  to 
mental  toil,  as  if  broken  vases,  that  need  the  most 
careful  handling,  in  order  to  keep  them  from  falling 
asunder  under  the  pressure  of  life's  burdens.  One 
would  think  that  there  was  enough  stolidity  in  this 
world,  without  having  any  of  the  leaders  of  socie- 
ty stultify  themselves,  to  any  degree,  by  theory. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  31 

When  a  scholar's  health  fails,  it  is  the  common,  as 
it  is  certainly  a  very  easy,  solution  of  the  enigma, 
and  one  which  the  mass  are  always  ready  to  accept 
at  once,  to  say,  that  he  has  killed  himself  by  too 
much  mental  labor.  Other  men  die  of  all  sorts  of 
diseases,  endemic  and  epidemic  ;  but  scholars  of 
only  one,  too  much,  study.  With  what  a  show  of 
wisdom,  that  costs  nothing  but  goes  far,  does  many 
a  doctor  after  measuring  a  youth's  pulse  that  habit- 
ually eats  too  much,  or  studies  and  sleeps  in  a  close 
room,  or  indulges  in  vicious  habits,  say  to  his  par- 
ents, while  raising  his  spectacles  and  looking  gravely 
around,  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  some  won- 
derful announcement,  "  Your  son  delves  too  deeply 
into  his  books  ;  his  brain  is  large,  as  might  of 
course  be  expected  in  the  noble  scion  of  such  a 
noble  stock ;  let  him  relinquish  all  study  at  once 
and  have  free  scope  out  of  doors  "  !  The  doctor  is 
pleased  with  his  own  wisdom:  and  the  dispensation 
which  it  gives  him  from  any  farther  thought,  as 
well  as  with  the  fee  secured  by -so  little  effort :  the 
parents  are  pleased  with  the  distinguished  capaci- 
ties of  their  son,  and  are  willing  to  abide  the  need- 
ful time,  for  their  best  development ;  while  the  child 
himself  is  delighted  to  escape  the  laws  and  restraints 
of  earnest  mental  and  moral  culture,  and  will  tram- 
ple, with  as  much  devotion  to  theory,  as  any  of  the 
parties  in  the  premises,  all  the  treasures  that  he 


32  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

had  begun  to  gather  as  an  intellectual  and  im- 
mortal being  under  his  feet.  The  love  of  labor,  the 
desire  for  knowledge,  the  sense  of  his  own  higher 
nature,  the  training  of  his  mind  to  right  aims, 
efforts,  habits  and  achievements,  all  these  are 
thrown  by  system,  as  if  doing  God  himself  service, 
like  chaff  into  the  fire.  The  edifice  of  his  future 
character  and  destiny  which  a  teacher's  loving 
hands  had  been,  carefully  and  prayerfully,  con^ 
structing  with  all  science  and  skill,  is,  from  the 
fatal  hour  described,  not  only  to  be  neglected  and 
to  fall  into  decay;  but  is  even  to  be  zealously  pulled 
down  to  its  very  foundations.  How  many  has  every 
teacher  of  wide  experience  thus  seen  spoiled,  forever 
spoiled,  that  is  robbed,  for  this  is  the  meaning  of 
the  word,  robbed  for  life  of  what  they  might  have 
been.  Not  a  greater  crisis  is  it  to  a  tree,  to  be  dug 
up  or  blown  over  by  the  roots  when  in  its  full 
summer-bloom.  Thoughts,  desires,  impulses  and 
habits,  that  before  were  vigorous,  are  ever  after- 
wards paralyzed.  The  idea  has  taken  possession, 
as  if  with  a  demon's  spite,  of  the  before  glowing 
soul,  panting  for  every  excellence,  that  there  is  a 
ban  in  its  own  feeble  nature  upon  every  thing  but 
mediocrity  and  irregularity  of  effort ;  and  that 
therefore  it  must  content  itself,  with  being  what  it 
can,  rather  than  what  it  would.  With  what  glad- 
ness does  he  who  loves  to  ruin  men,  read  that  uni- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  33 

versal  epitaph  of  all  students  who  die  early  :  "  Here 
rests  a  poor  soul  who  killed  himself  by  hard  study." 
The  final  analysis  indeed  of  the  causes  of  disease 
and  death,  among  professional  men  generally,  is 
thus  stated  in  all  directions  ;  and  the  form  of  the 
statement  we  have  copied  literally  from  a  recent 
daily  paper  :  "  He  broke  down  at  last,  from  the  re- 
action upon  the  system  of  an  overtasked  brain/' 
How  different  the  idea  thus  insinuated,  about  the 
dangerousness  of  thorough  mental  industry,  from 
that  involved  in  such  commands  of  God,  as  "  not  to 
be  slothful  in  business,"  "  to  do  what  our  hands 
find  to  do  with  our  might "  and  to  remember  that 
"  nerein  is  our  Heavenly  Father  glorified,  that  we 
bear  much  fruit."  Well  does  Satan  know  that  if 
earnest  mental  toil  can  be  kept  at  a  discount  in 
this  world,  a  perpetual  extinguisher  will  be  thereby 
put  upon  any  large  or  desirable  growth  of  religion 
in  society.  Who  ever  thinks  of  ascribing  a  scholar's 
poor  health  to  the  selfishness  of  his  aims  :  a  fact' 
which  if  true,  as  in  so  many  cases  it  is,  would  alone 
rob  him  of  all  the  stimulus  to  action  and  enjoyment, 
without  which  the  Divine  Mind  itself,  with  all  its 
other  vast  resources,  would  be  no  longer  divine  or 
happy,  the  stimulus  of  love,  as  well  as  the  power 
of  the  greatest  of  all  objective  summons,  in  the 
supreme  claims  of  God  upon  the  soul,  to  the  high 

and  broad  action  of  all  his  faculties.     Who  refers 

2* 


34  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

Ins  maladies,  at  any  time,  to  the  indulgence  of 
constant  cares  and  anxieties,  which  eat  away  in- 
evitably the  root  of  every  lofty  sentiment  and  hope 
that  they  attack.  Without  joy,  it  is  as  impossible 
for  either  body  or  mind  to  put  on  beauty  or  strength, 
or  even  to  keep  them  when  acquired,  as  for  the 
lungs  or  heart  to  maintain  their  normal  action,  in 
air  full  of  corruption,  or  for  steam  to  be  generated 
in  abundance  with  insufficient  water  or  fuel.  Who 
ascribes  the  failure  of  a  student's  health  to  constant 
improprieties  in  food  and  clothing  ?  Who,  to  that 
almost  universal  plague  of  all  our  houses  and  public 
buildings,  carbonic  acid  gas,  with  which  almost  all 
students,  by  thoughtless  or  even  wanton  indiffer- 
ence to  the  subject,  allow  themselves  to  be  sur- 
rounded and  poisoned,  both  by  day  and  night  ? 
No  wonder  that  such  need  frequent  vacations,  and 
that  both  teachers  and  scholars,  of  such  a  sort,  are 
ready  to  volunteer  their  testimony  to  the  exhaustive 
^effects  of  real  study.  Many  even  imagine  them- 
selves half  ready  to  go  mad,  at  times  ;  they  are 
such  amazing  thinkers  !  and  then  how  many  stories 
are  there,  of  brain-cracked  geniuses,  as  of  heart- 
broken lovers  ;  and  what  an  argument  against  being 
a  genius,  or  ever  indulging  in  love  !  But  a  really 
great  student  is,  in  this  country  at  least,  a  rare 
specimen  of  our  race.  It  has  never  been  the  au- 
thor's lot,  although  associated  with  scholars  all  his 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  35 

days,  to  come  in  contact  with  a  man,  who  could 
justly  be  described  as  hurting  himself  by  hard 
study.  The  nearest  apparent  approximation  to 
such  a  fact,  to  be  found  within  the  bounds  of  his 
experience,  occurred  in  the  case  of  that  distinguished 
oriental  scholar,  Nordheimer,  who  died  so  soon  after 
coming  to  this  country ;  but,  on  inquiry  of  him  it 
proved,  that  the  cause  of  the  injury  done  to  his 
health  was  not  too  vigorous  action  of  the  mind  as 
such,  but  too  little  sleep  ;  since,  for  years  he  had 
allowed  himself,  when  in  Germany,  but  three  hours 
repose  at  night,  and  that  on  three  chairs,  in  full 
dress,  under  the  call  of  an  alarm-clock.  Such  sys- 
tematic self-abuse  would  have  killed  any  one,  but 
an  enthusiastic,  happy  student,  long  before  it  did 
that  devoted  and  spirited  linguist. 

Nothing,  next  to  worship  and  direct  beneficence 
to  others,  so  fills  the  heart  with  such  sweet  all-per- 
vasive satisfaction,  as  active  and  energetic  habits  of 
thought,  perpetually  busy  in  exploring  the  outer 
universe  which  Grod  has  made,  and  the  inward  rela- 
tions of  science,  doctrine,  providence  or  secondary 
agency,  by  which  its  wondrous  harmonies  are  fash- 
ioned and  established.  Let  earnest  vigorous  study 
abound,  not  only  for  its  own  sake  but  also  as  one  of 
the  surest  means  of  bodily  health  ;  but  always  let 
it  be  with  a  brain  supplied,  as  freely  in  doors  with 
air,  vital  air,  as  if  out  of  doors.  There  is  nothing 


36  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

that  this  age,  from  whatever  point  we  survey  its 
wants,  needs  more,  physically,  intellectually  and 
morally,  than  thorough  ventilation. 

And  yet  a  voice  has  been  recently  raised,  a  pro- 
fessional voice  from  one  of  our  large  cities,  and  mul- 
tiplied with  many  echoes  through  the  public  press, 
as  if  place  and  form  and  repetition  might  give  it 
some  importance,  warning  our  Boards  of  Education 
to  reduce  at  once  the  term  of  daily  study  in  the 
Public  Schools  to  three  hours,  as  a  matter  of  simple 
duty  to  the  next  generation.  Quite  as  good  advice 
would  it  be,  for  the  physical  profit  of  the  coming 
age,  to  propose  a  general  public  administration 
daily  of  opium  to  the  whole  community  of  young- 
sters, in  order  to  make  them  keep  their  limbs  still 
long  enough  to  accumulate  a  little  more  fat.  The 
bane  of  this  world  now  is  too  little  thought,  too 
little  study,  too  little  growth  and  grasp  of  mind, 
too  little  occupation  with  the  objects  of  reason, 
science,  truth  and  faith. 

The  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  in  the  heart 
has  often  been  said  to  be  Poetry  ;  it  should  rather 
be  called  Thought  :  thought  in  whatever  "high  earn- 
est form,  but  especially  in  those  forms  which  are 
most  full  of  activity  without,  and  gladness  within. 
Merchants,  farmers,  mechanics  and  others,  if  arriv- 
ing at  extreme  old  age,  often  if  not  generally  pass 
away  from  earth  through  the  cloud  of  second  child- 


HIGHEK    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  37 

hood.  But  thinkers,  scholars,  philosophers,  poets 
have,  in  great  numbers,  like  Samuel  Johnson  dying 
when  76  years  old  ;  Leibnitz  when  70  ;  Sir  Wil- 
liam Herschel  when  84  ;  Goethe  when  83  ;  our 
own  Ernmons*  when  95  ;  or  Alexander  Humboldt, 
who  has  just  deceased  at  90  and  over  ;  and  Jacob 
Grimm  now  abounding  in  many  and  great  labors, 
at  the  age  of  more  than  70  ;  been  hale  and  healthy, 
with  the  fire  of  their  youth  undimmed  in  their  eye, 
and  the  natural  strength  of  their  heart  unabated,  to 
the  end. 

When  one  points  to  the  Germans,  as  a  hardy 
long-lived  happy  nation  of  severe  students,  the  re- 
ply is  often  made  :  "  Oh  yes  !  but  the  climate  of 
Germany  is  very  different  from  this  :  there  is  some 
undefinable  element,  unfortunately,  quite  peculiar 
to  our  North  American  atmosphere,  that  forbids  here 
such  close,  mental  application."  How  strange  that 
no  one  has  ever  discovered  the  influence  of  this 
marvellous  fact  upon  our  bodily  characteristics  and 
enjoyments  !  But  no  !  that  would  not  be  a  profit- 

*  In  "  The  Reflections  of  a  Visitor,  in  Ide's  Memoir  of  Emmons  " 
(Vol.  1,  p.  1G9  of  Introduction)  occurs  the  following  passage,  of 
special  interest  in  this  connection  :  "  The  clergy  of  New  England 
tasked  themselves,  as  if  they  were  of  antediluvian  mould.  We  read 
of  the  two  Edwardses,  Hopkins,  Smalley,  Stiles,  Chauncey  and 
Dwight  as  at  their  books  thirteen,  fourteen,  fifteen  and  sometimes 
eighteen  hours  of  the  day.  Dr.  Emmons,  in  this  respect  equalled 
any  of  them." 


38  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF   THE 

able  part  of  the  plan  of  "  the  mystery  of  iniquity/' 
in  the  world.  It  is  only  the  mind,  and  that  only 
in  its  higher  uses  and  attainments,  that  is  endanger- 
ed in  our  too  oxygenated,  or  changeable,  or  other- 
wise faulty,  atmosphere.  We  are  indeed  a  nation 
of  dyspeptics,  but  not  because  the  air  given  to  us 
to  breathe  is  not  as  good  as  that  of  any  other  nation 
under  heaven  ;  but  because  all  our  arrangements 
are  adapted  to  exclude  it,  and  to  substitute  in  its 
place  the  most  deadly  gas  on  earth  :  necessary  in- 
deed to  all  vegetation,  and  so  indirectly  necessary 
to  us  :  a  part  of  all  the  beauty  of  nature,  and  of 
the  very  sustenance  of  life,  but  yet  itself  directly 
fatal  to  our  lungs  and  nerves.  We  read  almost 
daily  of  persons  suffocated  in  vats  and  subterranean 
caves  and  old  wells  ;  and  yet,  shutting  our  doors 
and  windows  with  great  care,  as  we  retire  to  sleep, 
as  if  purposely  to  shut  out  the  presence  of  our  best 
friend,  we  prepare  for  ourselves  systematically  a 
bath  of  the  same  poison  in  our  chambers  and  rise 
out  of  it  in  the  morning,  as  from  our  seats  also  in 
churches,  lecture-rooms,  concert-halls  and  railroad 
cars,  sick  and  ready  to  say,  like  the  youth  in  Scrip- 
ture returning  from  the  field  to  die,  and  for  the 
same  reason,  because  the  hand  of  death  is  resting, 
for  the  time,  upon  our  shoulders  :  "  my  head  !  oh 
my  head  !  "  And  how  do  multitudes  continue  the 
same  course  of  constant  self-poisoning  day  after 


HIGHER    CHBISTIAN    EDUCATJ  39 

day.  gick  and  discouraged,  and  wonder  why  God  did 
dash  our  cup  of  earthly  sweets  with  so  many  daily 
ills,  and  long  for  their  spiritual  body,  as  one,  that, 
in  a  better  sphere,  shall  be  ever  free  from  all  the 
trials  of  their  mortal  life.  Our  common  form  of 
salutation,  in  meeting  each  other,  however  casually, 
is  one  that  implies  that  every  man  expects  to  find 
his  neighbor  ailing  in  some  way.  The  only  ventila- 
tion to  which  most  have  yet  attained,  whose  eyes 
are  at  all  open  to  its  necessity,  amounts  simply  to 
great  care  to  ventilate  one's  rooms,  after  they  have 
left  them  ;  as  if  out  of  respect  to  the  general  clean- 
liness of  the  house  itself,  instead  of  ventilating 
them,  when  present  themselves  to  enjoy  the  benefit 
of  such  ever-changing,  pure,  refreshing  air,  as  God 
himself  always  carefully  gives  to  those  who  take  the 
air  as  he  furnishes  it  for  them,  in  the  outer  temple 
of  His  works.  How  strange  that  the  first  prescrip- 
tion given  by  the  physician  to  a  valetudinarian, 
"  to  take  the  air/7  every  day,  and  more  and  more 
according  to  his  strength,  should  never  be  thought 
of  afterwards  by  him  as  a  rule  of  health  when 
well ;  or  that  any  one  should  suppose,  that  it  is  any 
the  less  healthy,  when  taken  pure  in  doors,  than 
when  taken  out  of  doors.  There  never  was  a  nation 
that  closeted  itself,  on  theory,  in  confined  apart- 
ments, like  our  own  :  not  the  Greeks  or  IfrwMiMt, 
whose  lite  was  literally  an  out-of-door  life  ;  nor  the 


40  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

Germans  French  or  English,  who  are  all  much 
more  addicted  to  the  air,  than  are  we.  And  what  a 
terrible  compensation  do  we  receive  for  such  utter 
neglect  of  the  essential  conditions  of  health,  in  our 
two  great  national  diseases,  dyspepsia  and  con- 
sumption ! 

In  what  weak  and  even  dishonorable  ways,  do 
good  men,  so  called,  often  speak  of  God  !  A  youth, 
for  example,  violates  all  the  rules  of  health  and  the 
conditions  of  protracted  life,  and  ere  long  by  an  ac- 
cumulation of  many  transgressions,  each  small  and 
unnoticed  at  the  time,  brings  on  a  crisis  which  he 
alone  has  prepared  ;  and  parents  and  friends  stand 
gazing  and  wondering  at  the  scene,  and  exclaim, 
"  what  a  pity  !  what  a  mysterious  providence  !  that 
such  a  charming  youth  should  fall  so  suddenly  and 
so  early,  in  the  field/' 

Many,  if  not  most,  of  our  colleges  and  boarding 
schools  are  quite  entitled  to  be  called,  slaughter- 
houses :  so  great  is  the  sacrifice  in  them  of  health 
and  strength.  College  classes,  often,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved generally,  contain  at  their  graduation  but 
half  of  the  whole  number  that  have  belonged  to 
them  throughout  their  course.  Half  have  fallen  by 
the  way,  during  four  years  ;  and  this  of  boys  from 
the  best  families  of  the  land  :  all  of  course,  as  most 
people  please  the  devil  in  thinking  and  saying,  by 
hard  study.  The  necessity  of  an  actual  and  con- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  41 

stant  change  of  the  air  to  be  breathed,  by  day  and 
night,  whether  taking  it  as  prepared  by  the  Maker 
of  it  and  us,  or  preparing  it  for  ourselves,  is  a  fact, 
yea  a  law  not  yet  known,  or,  if  known,  recognized 
by  teachers  in  our  colleges  and  seminaries  ;  who  sit 
themselves  in  close  rooms  all  day  long,  and  hear 
their  recitations  in  narrow  apartments,  breathing 
with  thirty  or  forty  pupils,  for  two  and  three  hours 
daily,  air  that  is  made  unfit  for  respiration  in  a 
few  minutes  :  not  only  not  insisting  on  a  perpetual 
renovation  of  the  air  themselves,  but  laughing 
heartily  or  at  least  secretly  at  those  who  do,  as 
being  crotchety  and  angular  enough  in  their  views : 
not  seeing  meanwhile,  as  those  around  them  do,  in 
their  own  pale  faces  and  slow  gait  and  languid 
manner,  that  they  are  steadily  and  surely  drinking 
every  day  for  themselves  a  draught  of  the  cup  of 
death. 

3dly.  Another  of  the  great  guiding  principles 
in  the  work  of  the  higher  Christian  education,  one 
fundamental  to  its  right  prosecution  is  this  :  that 
true  education  is,  in  each  individual  case,  a  develop- 
ment of  what  is  within,  instead  of  an  accretion  from 
without. 

On  this  cardinal  idea  hinge  many  subordinate 
ones  of  importance.  The  teacher  who  has  such  a 
conception  of  his  work  will  regard  the  stimulation 
of  his  pupil's  mind  to  great  wakefulness  and  energy 


42  THE    TEUE    WORK    OF    THE 

of  action,  as  one  of  his  own  perpetual  duties  and 
pleasures.  The  art  of  successfully  stimulating 
another's  mind  to  ever  higher  thoughts  and  nobler 
aims,  is,  whether  for  subjective  intellectuality  or 
objective  usefulness,  one  of  the  highest  of  all  arts. 
He  will  accordingly  address  himself,  as  does  an  en- 
thusiastic gardener  to  the  work  of  cherishing  and 
perfecting  a  favorite  plant,  to  the  grand  inspiring 
enterprise  of  educating,  that  is,  as  the  word  signi- 
fies in  its  component  elements,  constantly  educing 
or  drawing  out,  all  the  hidden  riches  of  his  scholar's 
whole  inward  self,  as  prepared  by  his  Maker  with 
all  wisdom  and  love  for  the  very  purpose  of  such 
education.  The  stimulation  that  a  loving  Christian 
teacher  will  be  ever  bringing  to  bear,  with  the  great- 
est possible  intensity  of  force  and  constancy  of  ap- 
plication, upon  a  younger  mind  which  God  in  his 
providence  has  given  to  him  to  train  for  him,  while 
it  will  have  within  it  all  the  constraints  and  pres- 
sure and  goading  impulse  of  authority  and  law, 
will  yet  be  charged  to  fulness,  like  God's  own  style 
of  government  and  influence  over  his  intelligent 
creatures,  with  all  winning,  inviting,  beckoning 
elements  of  thought  and  feeling  and  manner.  Such 
a  teacher  will  be  ever  in  the  van  of  his  work,  and 
of  his  pupils,  bearing  the  banner  before  them  of  the 
highest  possible  progress  in  it.  How  different  such 
treatment  of  a  scholar,  in  its  influence  upon  him, 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  43 

compared  with  that  of  indulging  him  in  his  own 
ideas  and  ways,  for  which  he  may  often  ask  and 
indeed  stand  waiting,  as  a  privilege,  only  to  despise 
him  who  ought  to  refuse  it,  if,  on  the  contrary,  he 
weakly  grants  its  hestowal.  In  the  one  case,  the 
pupil's  real  good  is  seen  and  felt  to  be  the  starting 
point  and  inspiration  of  every  movement ;  in  the 
other,  he  is  his  own  guide  ;  and  the  teacher  is 
rightly  viewed,  as  both  intellectually  and  morally, 
incompetent  for  the  post  of  leadership. 

On  the  doctrine,  that  true  education  is  a  devel- 
opment, and  not  an  accretion,  hangs  also  the  farther 
idea,  that  its  great  object  is  thorough  mental  dis- 
cipline, and  not  a  mere  accumulation  of  knowledge. 
The  mind  is  to  be  trained  to  do  each  part  of  its 
appointed  work  in  life,  in  the  most  perfect  manner 
possible,  whether  in  the  form  of  endurance  or  of 
action.  Drill  makes  the  scholar,  as  it  makes  the 
soldier  :  steady,  sturdy  drill.  Difficulties  must  be 
set  before  him,  and  when  in  his  ignorance  or  slug- 
gishness he  draws  back  from  the  effort  necessary  to 
conquer  them,  he  must  be  held  persistently  to  the 
task.  This  is  God's  mode  of  developing  talent, 
enterprise  and  piety  in  His  kingdom  :  to  set  over 
against  men  the  trials  and  necessities  of  life,  in 
such  a  way  for  number  and  size,  that,  if  they  do  not 
arise  and  crush  them,  they  must  be  inevitably 
crushed  by  them.  By  making  however  the  efforts 


44  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

adequate  to  a  triumph,  the  soul  is  lifted  up  into 
the  atmosphere  of  a  new  consciousness  of  itself  and 
of  a  new  vision  of  its  privileges.  Not  only  is  it 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,  but  the  active 
pleasures  of  our  being,  generally,  are  higher  than  the 
passive.  God  has  therefore  placed  the  prizes  of 
earth  and  of  heaven  so  near  us,  as  to  invite  our 
desires  by  their  size  and  their  beauty,  and  yet  so 
much  above  us,  that  we  must  climb  hard  and  high, 
in  order  to  obtain  them.  So  must  we  purposely 
cast  the  pupil  upon  his  own  resources,  and  disci- 
pline him,  not  only  to  rely  upon  himself  and  do  his 
own  work,  but  also,  when  he  does  it,  to  do  it  with 
all  his  might,  that  neither  he  nor  his  Maker  may  be 
robbed,  at  any  time,  of  the  proper  results  of  his 
agency. 

The  idea  that  all  real  education  is  a  develop- 
ment, instead  of  an  accretion,  will  make  its  pos- 
sessor^  if  himself -educated,  an  artist  in  his  work. 
A  true  teacher  is  the  greatest  of  artists.  Every 
part  of  his  work  is  carefully  designed.  He  studies 
the  mind  itself,  that  he  may  comprehend  fully  what 
are  its  necessities,  and  what  are  its  capabilities,  as 
well  as  what  are  its  germinal  elements,  and  also 
their  inward  processes  of  growth.  He  studies  the 
universe  of  matter  and  mind,  without,  that  he  may 
rightly  understand  the  scope  and  field  and  forms 
of  human  activity.  He  studies  life  itself,  its  many 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  45 

phases,  wants  and  issues.  Thus  armed,  he  lays  out 
every  energy,  with  study  and  prayer  and  ingenu- 
ity and  watchful  observation,  to  educe  and  exalt  all 
the  fundamental  capacities  of  his  pupil's  whole  na- 
ture into  full  harmony  with  themselves,  and  into 
full  correspondence  with  the  many  duties  and  op- 
portunities of  the  world  around  him.  Had  ever 
any  other  artist  so  wide  a  field,  or  so  high  a  work, 
or  so  splendid  a  train  of  results  attending  him  ? 
For  the  better  appreciation  of  him  and  of  his  work, 
consider  what  are  the  achievements  of  a  true  edu- 
cation. 

§  1.  He  who  has  obtained  it  has  obtained  the 
full  use  and  possession  of  himself.  The  acts  and 
states  of  his  mind  are  under  his  own  control,  in  re- 
spect to  their  direction,  continuance  and  force.  He 
has  passed  out  of  his  state  of  intellectual  childhood, 
when  he  had  eyes  but  could  not  see,  and  ears  but 
could  not  hear,  all  the  glorious  things  around  him 
and  above  him.  He  is,  under  the  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords,  himself  the  lord  of  the  world 
within,  not  in  feeling  as  inflated  with  pride,  but  in 
fact,  as  the  conscious  owner  and  manager  of  its 
great  and  complicated  forces. 

§  2.  He  is  in  a  state  not  only  of  natural,  but 
also  of  skilfully  developed,  responsiveness  to  all 
influences  and  summons  from  without.  The  great 
argument  of  universal  nature  to  every  attentive  ob- 


46  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

server  is  beauty,  perpetual  divine  beauty  by  day 
and  night,  in  the  heavens  above  and  the  earth  be- 
neath and  the  waters  that  are  under  the  earth. 
That  beauty  he  sees,  he  feels,  everywhere  ;  and  his 
heart  looks  out  upon  it,  from  a  throne  of  gladness, 
rejoicing  in  it  and  in  Him  who  made  it  for  the 
pleasure  of  his  earthly  children. 

The  argument  of  humanity,  as  he  gazes  upon 
its  dark  waters,  foaming  out  their  own  sin  and 
shame,  is  pity.  From  every  quarter  he  seems  to 
himself  to  be  implored  for  help  and  he  hails  the 
universal  summons.  He  would  do  service  to  his  fel- 
lows. True  manliness  seems  to  him  to  be  essen- 
tially demonstrative  of  itself  and  perpetually  com- 
municative of  its  treasures  unto  all  men. 

And,  as  to  the  sweet  influences  from  above 
distilling  forever  upon  him  from  his  Father's  heart 
on  high,  they  give  him  all  the  flavor  of  life.  Hence 
comes  the  light,  hence  fall  the  showers,  by  which 
every  grace  and  virtue  in  his  heart  are  nourished. 
To  smile  with  joy  in  the  beams  of  His  presence,  to 
be  covered  with  the  adornments  of  his  spirit,  to 
minister  to  his  glory  and  pleasure,  is  the  very  sum- 
mit of  his  desires  and  endeavors.  His  whole  aim  in 
life  is  to  make,  on  the  one  hand,  the  greatest  possi- 
ble use,  as  the  steward  of  God,  of  all  privileges  be- 
stowed upon  him,  and,  on  the  other,  the  greatest 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  47 

possible  outlay  of  every  faculty  and  resource,  as  his 
loving  friend,  in  the  promotion  of  his  kingdom. 

§  3.  He  is  in  a  state  of  perpetual  normal  growth, 
in  susceptibility,  power,  usefulness  and  enjoyment. 
The  main  result  of  education,  as  a  developing  pro- 
cess, is  "  to  draw  out "  the  inner  life  of  the  man, 
in  right  proportions  and  into  right  directions.  How 
often  do  we  hear  of  a  finished  education  !  The 
word  is  a  misnomer  :  the  conception  is  an  impossi- 
bility. Not  more  deficient  in  finalities  is  eternity 
itself,  than  the  mind  of  man.  The  scope  of  a  true 
education  is  unlimited  and  illimitable.  The  intel- 
lect possessing  the  greatest  dimensions  of  power  or 
of  attainment  on  earth,  stands  but  at  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  a  series  of  endless  progressions.  But, 
to  start  rightly,  to  go  forth  towards  the  true  objects 
of  our  being  in  a  true  manner :  this  is  the  problem  ; 
and  the  high  divine  work  of  the  educator  is,  to  ini- 
tiate those  forms  and  habits  of  thought  and  feeling, 
of  aim  and  action,  out  of  whose  full-flowing  influ- 
ence may  be  realized  to  their  possessor,  by  the  very 
necessity  of  cause  and  effect,  in  ever  unfolding  man- 
ifestation, the  highest,  broadest,  richest  future,  of 
which  the  soul  is  capable. 

What  a  work  of  art,  therefore,  of  sublime  and 
altogether  unappreciated  art,  do  the  achievements 
of  a  real  education  show  a  true  teacher's  labor  of 
life  to  be  ! 


48  THE    TRUE    WORK   OF   THE 

4thly.  Another  of  the  great  normal  guiding  prin- 
ciples, in  the  work  of  the  higher  Christian  educa- 
tion, is  this  :  that  its  ultimate  end  to  the  individual 
is  character. 

As  the  scale  of  life's  activities  and  pleasures  is 
three-fold,  bodily,  intellectual  and  spiritual,  and  in 
the  spiritual  the  others  find  their  culmination  and 
fulfilment  ;  so  is  it  with  the  developments  of  our 
nature  itself.  The  moral  is  the  pinnacle  of  our 
whole  being.  The  starting-point,  as  the  terminus, 
of  all  virtue  or  vice  and  of  all  good  or  evil,  expe- 
rienced or  performed,  are  there.  All  the  wondrous 
attributes  of  God  draw  their  light  and  heat,  their 
worth  and  beauty,  from  the  central,  all-controlling 
attribute  of  his  love.  It  is  God's  character  alone 
that  makes  him  God,  or  that  makes  this  universe 
properly  His  universe.  But  for  his  capacity  for 
character,  man  would  have  no  powers  to  be  desired  : 
none,  that  would  not  deserve  to  be  dreaded,  as  pow- 
ers fitted  only  to  lash  and  torment  and  destroy 
each  other,  in  an  uproar  of  never-ending  contradic- 
tions. Whatever  therefore  is  done  in  the  work 
of  education  in  a  true  way,  must  not  only  be  done 
with  design  and  skill ;  but  there  must  be  also  an 
ever-present,  ever-constraining  reference  to  the  ques- 
tion of  its  influence  upon  the  character  of  the  pupil, 
the  final  issue  of  all  the  labor  bestowed  upon  him 
there. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  49 

Character  is  commonly  of  a  wild  hap-hazard 
growth,  in  this  world.  The  very  phrase  Subjective 
Art,  and  much  more  the  statement,  that  this  is  the 
highest  of  all  arts  on  earth  or  in  Heaven  would 
seem  to  many  who  suppose  themselves  to  be  edu- 
cated Christian  thinkers,  a  singular  novelty.  And 
yet  there  is  nothing  that  mortals  can  do,  which  in- 
terests God  in  them  personally,  except  the  work  of 
adorning  themselves  with  those  ornaments  of  the 
heart,  which  are  in  his  sight  of  great  price.  True 
education  makes  the  man  himself,  and  not  some 
mere  outside  addition  to  him,  however  beautiful  or 
imposing.  Every  thing  else  is  but  a  means  to  this 
great  end  :  the  building  up  of  the  inner  temple  of 
the  soul,  or  the  transfusion  of  as  many  divine  ele- 
ments of  thought  and  feeling,  as  possible,  into  the 
whole  inner  framework  of  one's  being,  as  its  perma- 
nent characteristics  and  its  great  ruling  forces. 
Without  such  ideas  and  aims  in  his  work,  the 
teacher  walks  in  a  low  and  narrow  path  indeed ; 
but  with  them  he  walks  on  the  very  Highway  of 
holiness,  on  which  prophets  and  apostles  and  God's 
great  army  of  heroes  have  ever  gone  up  into  the 
skies. 

All  true  mental  and  moral  growth  is  self-growth : 
progress  made  for  one's  self  by  continued  effort  in  a 
right  direction,  under  the  perpetual  stimulus  of  a 

right  will.     Not  the  few  who  without  many  advan- 
3 


50  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

tages  yet  distinguish  themselves,  but  all,  with  ad- 
vantages or  without  them,  are  self-made  :  some, 
indeed  with  greater  facilities,  purer  models  and 
more  inspiring  influences  than  others  ;  but  all,  self- 
made.  A  splendid  character  is  but  the  splendid 
accumulation,  of  a  vast  number  of  right  choices  and 
right  deeds  :  the  soul's  own  pile  of  all  its  past  ideas 
and  hopes  :  itself,  in  every  thing  that  it  has  done 
and  desired  to  do,  throughout  its  entire  history. 

As  every  thing  in  the  universe  has  its  uses  out 
of  itself,  in  a  grand  harmony  of  connections,  de- 
pendences, influences  and  results  ;  and  every  thing 
material  was  made  for  something  moral  ;  and  things 
bodily  and  intellectual  always  culminate  in  things 
spiritual :  so,  to  display  character  on  God's  part, 
and  to  form  it  on  the  part  of  His  creatures,  these 
are  the  ends,  for  which  the  whole  universe  was  made. 
Time,  space,  creation,  providence,  redemption,  all, 
have  their  common  end  and  function  here.  The 
High  Priest  of  this  holy  work  on  earth  is  the 
teacher.  And  what  is  to  be  his  ideal  of  his  calling,' 
and* of  its  true  results?  The  elements  of  it  are  to 
be  found  in  all  the  actual  and  all  the  possible  of 
greatness  and  goodness,  in  all  time  and  eternity  and 
in  all  Heaven  and  earth.  As  the  true  conceptional 
model  of  any  species  of  plant  or  animal,  cannot  be 
found  in  any  one  individual  of  the  species  in  fact, 
but  must  be  an  aggregate  of  the  excellences  of  all 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  51 

individuals  combined,  so,  the  true  ideal  of  human 
development  must  be  composed  of  an  assemblage  of 
all  the  most  bright  and  beautiful  attainments  of 
intellect,  wisdom,  science  and  skill,  and  of  all  the 
most  lovely  traits  and  noble  dispositions  conceiv- 
able of  the  soul.  Unlike  other  artists,  the  Chris- 
tian educator  is  not  left  to  form  that  ideal  for  him- 
self ;  for  it  stands  before  his  eye,  in  a  beauty  and 
magnificence  all  its  own,  in  the  person,  life  and 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  who  came  on  earth  not 
simply  to  die  for  us,  but  also,  although  forgotten 
by  so  many,  to  live  for  us,  and  to  teach  us  in  such 
a  way,  how  to  live  for  each  other  :  telling  us  that 
except  we  have  His  spirit  we  are  none  of  His. 

The  whole  end  therefore  of  all  true  education  is, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  make  the  pupil  like  Christ  in 
his  character  and  in  the  style  and  sphere  of  his  out- 
ward activity,  and,  on  the  other,  to  qualify  him 
most  thoroughly  to  fill  out,  at  all  times,  the  com- 
plete dimensions  of  his  being  with  the  greatest 
possible  use  of  his  time  and  strength  and  oppor- 
tunities for  him.  "  Look  to  Jesus  "  !  is  to  be  there- 
fore the  one  bright  radiant  guiding  motto  of  the 
school-room,  as  of  the  church  and  the  household. 

5thly.  It  is  also  a  normal,  guiding  principle  in 
the  work  of  all  true  education  :  that  the  highest 
influence  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it  by 
the  teacher,  is  that  of  his  own  personality. 


52  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

The  greatest  influence  exerted  by  any  man  is 
that  which  is  insensible.  Occasional  influence  is 
but  the  influence  of  occasions  ;  which  have,  from 
their  very  infrequency  and  temporary  duration,  but 
little  effect  upon  the  great  current  of  human  affairs. 
But  the  influence  of  ourselves,  our  own  real  char- 
acter, example  and  spirit  :  this  is  a  light  that 
shines  for  good  or  evil  everywhere  around  us,  and 
that  makes  us  an  epistle,  known  and  read  of  all 
men.  As  great  as  is  the  sublimity  of  his  vocation, 
and  the  wide  and  lasting  reach  of  its  results,  so 
great  is  the  pressure  of  obligation  upon  the  teacher, 
to  be  magnanimous  himself  in  his  aims  and  efforts, 
and  to  be  a  true  man  before  God.  The  nearest 
merely  human  model  of  the  true  style  of  spirit, 
which  an  educator  should  possess,  is  furnished  in 
the  laborious  untiring  joyous  life  of  that  wonder- 
ful worker  for  God  and  man,  the  Apostle  Paul. 
Had  he,  instead  of  being  a  preacher  to  the  Gentiles, 
undertaken  to  serve  Christ  with  the  same  heroic 
earnestness  and  faith  and  prayerfulness,  in  the  work 
of  educating  the  young  for  him,  he  would  have  best 
exemplified,  thus  far  in  the  world's  history,  what 
wonderful  elements  of  power  belong  to  this  sublime 
vocation.  He  gave  himself  wholly  to  the  work  of 
inspiring  others  with  true  views  of  life  and  of  the 
glory  of  the  world  to  come  :  all  his  plans  were  grand 
and  all  his  ideas  heroic. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  53 

No  influence  can  be  exerted  in  this  world  so 
great,  next  after  God's,  as  that  of  one  man  directly 
upon  another.  We  dwell  indeed,  so  far  as  any  in- 
ward personal  inspection  of  ourselves  is  concerned, 
but  that  of  the  All-searching  eye  above,  in  a  closed 
castle,  each  one  shut  up  within  himself  in  the 
temple  of  his  own  body ;  but  in  our  occupations, 
aims  and  habits,  in  our  desires  and  hopes  and 
pleasures,  in  our  features,  gestures,  footsteps,  tones 
and  in  all  that  we  leave  undone  and  unregarded,  we 
are  perpetually  and  unconsciously  revealing  what 
we  are,  and  inworking  the  very  substance  of  our 
hidden  selves  into  the  characters  and  destinies  of 
others.  Individual,  personal  influence  is  the  great- 
est earthly  force  in  kind,  that  resides  in  any  human 
organization  or  movement.  One  great  reason,  ac- 
cordingly, why  good  results  are  so  few  and  so  tem- 
porary in  the  working  of  the  vast  social  machinery 
of  life,  whether  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world  with- 
out, is  because  of  the  general  low  estimate  of  the 
largeness  of  individual  obligations  and  individual 
privileges. 

Where,  then,  shall  a  student,  whose  heart  is  on 
fire  with  high  thoughts  of  his  own  nature  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  of  the  great  work  of  life  to  be 
done  for  Him,  and  of  the  splendors  of  an  eternal 
future  to  be  spent  in  his  presence  :  where,  shall 
such  an  one,  eager  to  make  the  largest  possible 


54  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

preparation,  in  intellect  and  character,  for  running 
the  race  of  life  like  a  hero,  find  a  company  of 
teachers  whose  eyes  and  hearts  burn  with  the  same 
zeal  for  his  good,  men  full  of  all  great  strong  loving 
thoughts  and  showing  it,  in  every  kind  of  genial, 
generous,  kindling  look  and  word  and  way  ?  Alas  ! 
routine  takes,  almost  everywhere,  the  place  of  daily, 
hearty,  skilful  effort  to  stimulate  and  develop,  in 
every  "way,  his  whole  nature.  Mechanism  is  the 
main  reliance,  and  not  ever  wakeful  personal  love,  so 
earnest  that  it  will  not  brook  the  denial  of  the  ob- 
ject at  which  it  aims,  the  pupil's  greatest  and  best 
advancement  in  all  things.  How  sere  and  stale  is 
the  experience  of  many  teachers,  after  persisting  a 
few  years  in  such  terrific  trifling  with  the  amazing 
capabilities  and  issues  of  their  divine  calling  !  Quite 
as  many  sear  their  consciences,  as  with  a  hot  iron, 
by  a  series  of  awful  negligences,  as  others  do  by  a 
series  of  overt  crimes.  There  are  also  those  who 
undertake  not  only  to  account  for  dull  mechanical 
habits  of  teaching,  but  even  to  justify  them  by  the 
plea,  that  the  teacher  has  too  many  under  his  care 
to  cultivate  a  special  interest  in  each  and  every  par- 
ticular pupil.  How  unlike  God  is  such  an  one,  in 
the  tone  of  his  heart,  who  feels  ever  restrained  by 
the  want  of  more  recipients  of  His  love  ;  so  that 
however  gracious  he  is  at  any  time  he  is  always 
waiting  to  be  more  so.  Love  grows  by  indulgence. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  55 

The  very  fact  of  numbers  and  of  their  continual 
succession,  and  so  of  the  ever  renewed  calls  for  fresh 
toil  and  skill  which  their  wants  present  in  con- 
stant repetition,  is  a  perpetual  reiteration  of  pleas- 
ure to  the  teacher  who  loves  his  work.  But  that 
there  should  be  such  constant  sameness  in  the  styl& 
of  his  labors,  is,  in  the  eyes  of  most,  the  greatest 
drawback  upon  their  pleasureableness.  All  such, 
as  do  not  feed  on  great  ideas,  but  live  only  on 
novelties  and  changes,  would  soon  tire  of  the  long 
labors  of  a  true  teacher's  life,  although  so  grand  in 
their  results.  But  novelty  is  neither  needed  nor 
felt  as  a  spur  to  effort  by  a  noble  soul.  The  In- 
finite Mind  finds  perpetual  joy  in  perpetual  work, 
with  no  novelty  whatever.  And  since  God,  from 
the  very  infiniteness  of  his  knowledge  and  pleasure, 
can  have  at  no  time  any  new  idea  cr  experience,  he 
satisfies  the  wants  of  His  vast  nature,  in  leading  his 
creatures  into  ever  new  knowledge  and  ever  new 
gladness  of  spirit  ;  and  surely  to  the  finite  mind 
also  the  communication  of  new  wisdom  and  new 
goodness  to  other  minds  is  greater  joy  than  the 
reception  of  them,  in  whatever  surprising  forms  of 
novelty  to  one's  self. 

But  what  dull  views  of  life  must  he  have,  who 
can  complain  of  a  teacher's  duties,  as  monotonous. 
And,  pray,  tell  us  where  is  the  monotony?  Cer- 
tainly not  in  the  objects  of  his  zeal  who  are  always 


56  THE    TRUE   WORK    OF    THE 

coming  and  going  upon  the  stage  :  not,. in  the  degree 
of  their  natural  capacities  or  personal  acquirements, 
nor,  in  sameness  of  results  under  the  most  skilful 
and  laborious  culture.  In  the  healing  art  which 
captivates  so  many,  there  are  but  two  great  secrets 
for  the  practitioner  to  solve  :  to  diagnose  well,  so 
as  really  to  find  the  actual  disease,  as  it  is  ;  and  the 
other,  to  be  equally  wise  in  discovering  the  one 
exact  remedy.  And  yet,  what  material  for  con- 
stant excitement  and  pleasure,  does  the  devotee  to 
this  noble  profession  find,  in  traversing  each  of  these 
fields  of  research  !  And  can  any  one  think,  that, 
in  the  school-room,  there  can  be  any  less  oppor- 
tunity or  necessity  for  thoroughly  studying  human 
nature  generally,  or  personal  idiosyncracies  in  par- 
ticular, than  for  studying  the  secret  hidings  of  dis- 
ease in  the  sick  chamber  •  or  any  less  exhilaration, 
in  carrying  points  of  order,  instruction,  discipline 
and  personal  influence,  with  tact  and  effect,  in  the 
character,  than  in  sending  away  some  brief  pain  or 
sorrow  from  the  tabernacle  of  the  flesh.  No  man 
has  the  spirit  of  a  true  teacher,  who  does  not,  each 
day.  enter  into  the  toils  of  his  work,  as  a  strong 
bold  swimmer  leaps  joyously  into  the  moving  tide, 
as  the  element  in  which  he  must  be  in  order  to  be 
happy.  If  there  is  any  employment  upon  earth, 
that  to  be  rightly  executed  enlists  and  demands 
every  faculty,  energy  and  resource  of  a  man's  whole 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    El 


complex  being,  however  armed 
character,  natural  or  acquired,  it  is  sure! 
and  he,  who  can  make  it  seem  dull  and  monotonous, 
infallibly  stamps  himself  thereby  to  his  own  con- 
sciousness, as  a  man  both  of  feeble  ideas  and  also 
of  a  very  low  range  of  moral  feeling. 

Much  is  said  of  the  ingratitude  of  youth,  as  a 
great  offset  to  any  high  sentimentalism  about  the 
pleasure  of  devoting  one's  self  to  their  education. 
Those  who  encounter  their  ingratitude,  usually  de- 
serve it.  Children  are  never  more  quick,  than  in 
finding  their  true  friends.  The  logic  of  their  in- 
stincts is  swift  and  unerring.  It  requires  real 
nobility  of  soul,  rightly  to  manage  and  mould  child- 
hood. Few  possess  true  benevolence  enough,  to  put 
on  the  patience  necessary  for  the  right  conduct  of 
any  large  plans  for  their  good.  Few  are  divine 
enough  in  the  temper  of  their  souls,  to  make  it 
desirable,  for  the  church  or  the  world,  to  commit  to 
them  the  formation  of  the  rising  generation.  If  en- 
gineers for  public  improvements,  and  those  who 
guide  the  affairs  of  State,  need  to  be  men  of  mark 
for  their  wisdom  and  efficiency,  what  should  be  the 
high  qualifications  of  those  who  form  the  very  men, 
for  whom  all  civil  and  even  material  things  exist,  as 
those  who  are  to  be  educated  by  them  and  among 
them,  for  an  entrance  ere  long  into  grander  scenes 


3* 


58  THE    TRUE    WORK    OF    THE 

and  nobler  society,  and  a  life  of  ever  bright  and  joy- 
ous experience  on  high. 

Gthly.  Another  guiding  principle,  in  the  work 
of  the  Higher  Christian  Education,  pertaining  to  it 
as  a  whole,  is  one  of  intellectual  and  moral  econo- 
mics :  so  to  manage  it,  as  to  bring  it  to  the  great- 
est actual  productiveness  possible. 

A  real  issue  in  the  best  attainable  results,  or  a 
natural  full  tendency  to  such  an  issue,  is  the  gauge 
by  which  we  measure  the  moral  quality  of  any  ac- 
tion or  combination  of  actions.  The  results  of  the 
present  educational  system  of  this  country,  as  in- 
deed also  of  this  age,  are  not  satisfactory.  They 
are  right,  in  neither  quality  nor  quantity.  Who, 
that  is  engaged  with  all  his  might  of  intellect  and 
heart  in  the  profession,  does  not  feel  what  heights 
of  excellence  there  are  in  it,  yet  untrodden  ?  And 
who*  that  has  obtained  an  education,  of  the  best 
type  yet  afforded,  does  not  often  say  to  himself: 
"  What  awful  mistakes  were  made,  in  my  educa- 
tion !  Had  my  teachers  but  seen  things  in  their 
true  relations  :  had  they  been  deeply  freighted, 
themselves,  with  knowledge  and  thought  and  love, 
and  moved  forward  in  their  work  with  all  the  en- 
ergy of  their  whole  united  nature  :  had  they  but 
known  my  weaknesses  and  my  wants,  my  hidden 
energies  and  my  blind  indeed  but  active  impulses, 
ever  to  be  and  to  do  something  greater  and  better, 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN     EDUCATION.  59 

I  knew  not  what  :  had  they  but  really  loved  me 
and  given  themselves,  heart  to  heart,  to  me  :  what ! 
oh  what  might  I  not  have  become  !  I  am  arid  I 
must  ever  be,  from  their  fault,  but  the  shadow  of 
my  own  real  self,  as  Grod  made  me  to  be  and  to 
stand  up  in  his  presence  on  the  earth." 

The  economical  working  of  the  educational 
forces  of  the  age  demands  that  as  little  waste,  as 
possible,  should  be  allowed  in  the  result.  It  is  not, 
by  any  means,  a  matter  of  indifference  who  advances 
and  who  does  not  under  the  instruction  given.  To 
fall  back  stolidly  on  a  sense  of  one's  own  dignity, 
which  alas  !  in  such  a  case  is  utterly  wanting  :  to 
comfort  one's  self,  without  any  earnest  self-inquisi- 
tion or  vigorous  effort  to  amend  the  difficulty,  in 
respect  to  the  poor  progress  of  a  pupil,  by  his  sup- 
posed dulness  of  nature,  a  dulness  which  is  com- 
monly indeed  only  supposed  and  not  real :  to  habit- 
uate one's  self  to  the  idea  of  moving  on  contentedly, 
with  the  mere  use  of  means  and  appliances,  without 
reference  to  their  effect :  is  not  this  to  be  a  driveller 
in  one's  ideas,  a  spendthrift  of  one's  resources  and  • 
to  be  a  man  utterly  deficient,  not  only  in  all  true 
conceptions  of  art  in  fashioning  character  and  des- 
tiny, but  also  of  mere  industry  and  even  of  honor, 
decency  or  duty,  before  either  God  or  man  ?  But 
are  there  none  such,  in  this  sacred  calling  ?  Yea  ! 
rather  are  there  not  many,  in  every  department  of 


60  THE    TKUE   WORK    OF    THE 

it,  low-browed  men,  indifferent  in  their  walk  and 
speech,  who  consider  not  only  their  own  employ- 
ment, unsurpassed  as  it  is  in  value  and  dignity  by 
any  other  upon  earth,  but  also  life  itself  a  drudgery. 
Such  are  the  men  that  teach,  because  they  do  not 
know  what  else  to  do  ;  that  never  give  new  ideas  to 
their  pupils,  because  they  have  none  themselves  ; 
and,  provided  that  they  keep  their  hours  and  stick 
to  their  book  and  continue  some  how  to  look  and 
act,  as  if  they  knew  a  good  deal  more  than  they  do, 
believe  that  they  surely  quite  equal  the  mechanical 
demands  of  their  mechanical  work.  And  these 
men,  leaving  to  fate  or  chance  the  results  of  their 
agency  or  rather  want  of  agency,  look  with  as  un- 
moved hearts  upon  an  utter  destitution  of  all  good 
effects  or  even  an  abundance  of  evil  effects  around 
them,  as  could  so  many  wooden  men  themselves. 
They  are  but  mere  apologies  for  teachers.  Out  of 
many  institutions  not  more  than  half,  and  out  of 
most  not  so  many,  come  forth  with  any  real  prepa- 
ration for  the  work  of  life  or  any  earnestness  of 
spirit  to  undertake  it.  The  amount  of  waste,  in 
nearly  every  case,  is  indeed  terrific. 

The  aim  should  be,  on  the  contrary,  more  eagerly 
and  persistently  kept,  to  achieve  the  greatest  possi- 
ble results,  of  which  either  the  true  system  of  Chris- 
tian education  itself  is  capable,  or  those,  on  whom 
it  is  brought  to  bear,  have  capacity  in  themselves 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  61 

for  development,  than,  in  the  world  of  business,  the 
merchant  or  manufacturer  maintains  in  conducting 
his  affairs.  His  will  works  steadily  and  effectively 
towards  its  proper  goal,  like  the  most  finished  engi- 
nery under  the  power  of  steam. 

Heaven  and  earth  call  loudly,  for  earnest,  work- 
ing, joyous  laborers  in  great  numbers,  in  the  sub- 
lime work  of  educating  the  rising  generation,  for 
the  honors,  duties  and  enjoyments  of  true  manhood. 


II. 


THE   TRUE   STYLE   AND   MEASURE  OF  THE 
HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION. 


II. 


THE   TRUE    STYLE   AND   MEASURE    OF  THE 
HIGHER  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION. 

HE  who  should  carefully  measure  the  dimensions  of 
man's  whole  complex  being,  and  conceive  of  him  as 
in  a  state  of  full  preparation,  in  respect  to  all  his 
powers,  for  the  issues  of  both  time  and  eternity, 
would  be  best  able  to  appreciate  and  determine  the 
true  style  of  his  education.  And  yet  how  far  would 
be  the  thoughts  of  such  an  one,  if  of  earth,  from 
filling  the  entire  horizon  of  the  subject ! 

As  it  is  our  design,  in  this  essay,  to  furnish  but 
a  general  map  of  what  belongs  to  the  full-orbed  idea 
of  real  education,  it  will  be  impossible  to  dwell  at 
length  upon  any  one  part  of  it.  The  following 
view,  it  is  believed,  will  furnish  an  outline,  at  least, 
of  what  ought  to  be  included  in  the  idea  of  a  com- 
plete education. 


66  THE    TEUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

First.     In  reference  to  the  body. 

Our  physical  system  is  certainly  the  basis,  while 
we  are  in  this  world,  for  the  manifestation  of  all  the 
rest  of  our  nature,  whether  to  our  own  consciousness 
or  to  the  eyes  of  others.  Our  intellectual  and  moral 
faculties  abide  in  it  as  their  tabernacle,  and  work 
through  it,  as  their  instrument,  upon  the  surround- 
ing universe.  While  fastened  to  the  body,  therefore, 
and  compelled  to  receive  all  our  impressions  and 
enact  all  our  deeds  through  it,  it  is  a  matter  of  great 
moment  what  its  best  condition  and  development 
demand. 

God,  himself,  always  places  the  physical  first,  in 
both  individual  and  national  advancement.  And 
how,  in  preparing  the  way  for  his  church,  so  dear  to 
him  that  her  name  has  been  always  graven  upon 
the  palms  of  his  hands,  did  he  deal  with  her,  as  we 
do  with  children,  in  her  earlier  years  :  educating 
her  by  appeals  to  the  senses,  at  the  first,  in  impres- 
sive forms,  ordinances,  ceremonials,  and  symbols. 
First,  that  which  is  natural,  saith  Paul,  and  then 
that  which  is  spiritual. 

Men  are  now,  indeed,  beginning  to  realize  the 
vast  importance  of  a  right  physical  education.  The 
ancients  were  far  wiser  in  this  particular  than  we. 
Not  only  their  literature  and  history,  but  also  their 
very  houses,  as  still  standing  disentombed  in  Pom- 
peii and  Herculaneum,  show  that  their  life  was  one 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  67 

passed  out  of  doors.  Their  active  games,  so  many, 
so  varied,  and  so  exciting  ;*  their  military  move- 
ments, in  which  all  engaged,  statesmen  and  scholars 
as  well  as  others  ;  and  all  the  preparatory  training 
which  these  necessitated  and  inspired  ;  their  frequent 
bathing  ;  the  vitality  and  social  hilarity  of  their 
daily  activities  and  experiences  ;  and  the  constant 
summons  everywhere  made  upon  them  for  quickness 
and  power  of  action,  gave  them  an  arm,  and  a 
breast,  and  a  pulse  of  far  greater  strength  than  men 
nowadays  possess.  Such  a  busy,  bustling  style  of 
life  accounts  for  the  high  estimate  in  which  they 
held  action  in  oratory  :  so  that  Demosthenes  once, 
in  stating  that  three  things  were  necessary  to  oratory, 
declared  them  emphatically  to  be  "  action  !  action  ! 
action  !  ! "  And,  for  the  same  reason,  we  do  not 
find  landscapes  among  the  paintings  of  the  ancients 
as  in  modern  art,  but  only  men,  or  gods,  and  their 
agents  :  not  still  life,  but  demonstrations  of  energy 
in  some  form  ;  and  so  likewise  their  imaginations 
animated  and  impersonated  every  thing  around  them. 
And  yet  the  bodily  development  of  the  ancients 
was  but  a  moiety  of  what  ours  might  become,  from 

*  The  education  of  a  Greek  youth  at  school  consisted  of  but 
three  parts  :  grammar,  music,  and  gymnastics  ;  the  latter  of  which 
occupied,  up  to  his  sixteenth  year,  as  much  time  as  the  other  two 
combined,  and,  from  that  age  up  to  eighteen,  excluded  them 
altogether. 


68  THE    TRUE   MEASURE    OF    THE 

their  utter  want  of  those  high,  moral,  and  religious 
stimulations  to  all  the  secret  springs  of  health  which 
we  have,  as  well  as  from  the  positive  injurious 
influence  upon  them,  of  their  frequent  and  various 
heathenish  excesses. 

A  wonderful  diversity  of  ends  can  be  gained  by 
special  bodily  training,  in  the  different  directions  of 
strength,  endurance,  agility  or  skill,  in  deeds  of 
muscular  force,  personal  bravery,  mechanical  con- 
trivance, or  elaborate  workmanship  in  forms  graphic, 
pictorial,  surgical,  musical,  gymnastic,  or  artistic. 
An  absolutely  special  education,  by  itself,  is  not  yet 
much  in  vogue  among  us,  where  so  many  depart- 
ments of  successful  labor  are  open,  on  every  side,  to 
those  who  possess  a  more  general  style  of  qualifica- 
tions for  honorable  toil. 

I.  What,  then,  it  is  our  first  question,  are  the 
ends  to  be  gained,  in  the  body,  as  a  matter  of  gen- 
eral attainment,  applicable  to  each  individual,  in  the 
course  of  the  higher  Christian  education  ? 

1st.  Soundness  or  health. 

With  the  fact  of  health,  as  with  the  very  word 
itself,  what  a  variety  of  things  is  closely  connected  ! 
Health,  heal,  hale,  whole,  and  holy  are  all,  etymo- 
logically,  derived  from  one  common  root.  The  same 
man,  with  health,  is  as  different,  certainly,  from 
what  he  would  or  could  be  without  it;  as  almost 
any  two  men  can  be  from  each  other. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  69 

(1.)  Health  is  a  duty.  It  is  not  indeed  wholly, 
but  it  is  surely  to  a  great  degree,  in  our  own  power, 
and,  so  far  as  it  is,  God  holds  us  responsible,  not 
only  for  its  safe  keeping,  but  also  for  its  improve- 
ment. Good  health  is  one  of  the  greatest  endow- 
ments that  a  man  can  receive  at  his  birth,  and  one 
of  the  greatest  treasures  that  he  can  obtain,  at  any 
time  afterwards,  whether  by  accident  or  design. 
When  every  man  is  taught  to  feel,  that  there  are 
definite  laws  of  bodily  health,  and  that  he  wrongs 
himself  and  his  Maker  in  violating  them,  as  truly  as 
in  taking  up  arms  against  reason  and  conscience  in 
any  other  direction  ;  human  life  and  human  labor 
will  receive,  at  once,  a  great  enlargement. 

(2.)  Health  is  also  a  power.  Vigor  of  muscle, 
nerve,  and  pulse,  is  a  wonderful  preparation  for 
strong  thinking,  feeling,  and  action.  Success  min- 
isters to  health,  and  health  to  success  ;  mutually 
helpful  to  each  other,  as  thoughts  to  words  and 
words  to  thoughts,  or  as  effort  to  attainment  and 
attainment  to  ever  new  effort.  By  far  the  great 
majority  of  those,  who  have  impressed  their  ideas 
and  plans  upon  the  world,  have  been  men  of 
abounding  health. 

(3.)  Health  is  a  joy.  Mere  animal  health, 
where  no  power  of  thought  is  connected  with  it,  to 
give  quickness  or  sweetness  to  the  flow  of  daily 
consciousness,  is  itself  a  constant  source  of  pleasure. 


70  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

The  air,  earth,  and  sea,  are  each  alive  with  happy 
creatures,  gamboling,  under  the  inspirations  of 
health,  in  constant  ravishment  with  their  brief  lease 
of  life. 

(4.)  Health  is  also  beauty.  God  hath  made 
every  thing  beautiful  in  its  time.  Things  inanimate 
abide  usually  as  he  has  made  them,  or,  if  they 
change,  change  into  forms  and  by  processes  of  his 
direct  contrivance.  Throughout  the  whole  domain 
of  organic  life,  the  same  general  principles  prevail, 
except  so  far  as  man,  by  his  abuses  or  neglects, 
perverts  their  original  constitution  or  appointed  uses 
and  relations.  He  it  is,  that  has  turned  the  world 
upside  down,  and  subjected  the  same  ;  so  that, 
through  him,  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now.  But  for  man, 
God  would  now  see  in  looking  down  upon  the  work 
of  his  hands,  as  at  the  creation,  that  "  it  was  all 
very  good."  Any  uninjured  animal  organism  that 
has  health,  is  whole  ;  and  is  therefore  in  the  state 
in  which  God  made  it  to  be  ;  and  that  state  is 
beauty.  He  can  make  nothing  wrong.  All  his 
works  praise  him.  Wrong  means  wrung,*  twisted, 
out  of  shape.  All  his  works  are  done  in  truth.  He 
can  make  nothing  ugly,  in  reference  to  the  place 

*  Compare  French  word  tort  (twisted) :  the  word  right  (from 
rectus),  being  the  exact  opposite,  in  the  form  of  the  figure,  ruled  or 
straight,  to  that  for  wrong,  or  crooked. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  71 

which  it  is  to  occupy,  or  the  ends  which  it  is  to 
accomplish.  All  the  great  intuitions  and  the  in- 
stinctive decisions  of  his  infinite  nature  would 
interdict  it.  He  is  not  a  God  of  confusion,  but  of 
order.  He  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  in  any 
department  of  his  sublime  being.  Beauty  is  the 
very  brightness  of  his  image,  and  is  therefore  dis- 
tributed as  universally  over  all  his  works,  as  the 
beams  of  his  presence. 

No  cosmetics,  no  arts  of  dress,  no  studied  ad- 
justment of  light  and  shade,  can  adorn  the  human 
face  or  form,  like  health.  The  perfection  of  all  col- 
ors on  earth  is  flesh -color,  which  blends  them  all 
in  one,  in  the  mortal  face  of  an  immortal  ;  and  the 
perfection  of  that  is  seen,  only  in  the  rosy  tint  of 
health.  The  glory  of  all  forms  on  earth  is  the  hu- 
man form,  in  which  the  delicacy,  dignity,  grace, 
might,  and  majesty  of  all  other  animate  forms,  are 
nicely  balanced  and  harmonized  together  ;  and  the 
glory  of  the  human  form  can  be  maintained  in  the 
strength  and  finish  of  its  members  and  their  func- 
tions, only  by  the  ever-quickening  impulses  of 
health.  The  ancients,  for  this  reason,  had  far  more 
beauty  of  form  than  we,  and  were  much  more  alive 
to  its  charms.  Formosus,  excelling  in  form,  is  the 
Latin  word  for  beautiful,  referring,  like  the  kindred 
word  speciosus,  making  a  fine  show,  and  preestans, 
literally  standing  up  before,  to  the  whole  outward 


72  THE    TKUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

contour  of  the  man.  On  heathen  ground  the  hu- 
man face  never  has  been,  and  never  can  be,  that 
thing  of  beauty,  which,  in  the  light  of  Christianity, 
when  all  aglow  with  divine  ideas  and  great  heroic 
aims  and  impulses,  it  becomes.  The  heart  has  no 
such  training  there,  as  qualifies  it  to  interpret  or 
appreciate  or  even  to  receive  into  itself  a  demon- 
stration of  moral  beauty,  in  either  the  works  of  God 
or  the  aspects  of  men.  The  very  word  face  (facies 
from  facio)  implies,  indeed,  that  this  it  is  which 
makes  the  individual  appearance  of  any  one  man 
what  it  really  is  :  as  the  very  making  of  the  face 
itself  is  also  expressed  in  the  word  feature  (Italian 
fattura,  Latin  factura)  from  facio.  Here  are  pre- 
sented the  high  signals  of  his  own  distinct  person- 
ality. And  yet  it  is  not  the  grouping  of  the  mere 
lineaments  of  the  human  visage,  however  fine, 
which  constitutes  its  special  glory  ;  but  the  moral 
expression,  breathed  into  them  and  filling  them 
with  its  deep,  inward  illumination.  The  divine 
light  of  this  higher  beauty  can  be  caught  and  kept 
in  the  features,  only  under  the  power  of  the  cross, 
and  from  the  very  reflection  upon  it  of  the  heart  of 
Christ,  dying  and  triumphing  while  he  dies. 

2d.  Large  positive  acquisitions  of  strength. 

The  duties  of  life  are  arduous.  'Health  will  an- 
swer the  demands  of  a  man's  own  nature  upon  it- 
self. But  there  are  burdens  to  be  carried,  enter- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  *73 

prises  to  be  undertaken,  and  hazards  to  be  encoun- 
tered, by  a  true  man,  in  behalf  of  a  world  whose 
social,  civil,  governmental,  religious,  and  educa- 
tional ideas  and  influences  are,  so  many  of  them, 
false  in  their  aims  and  mischievous  in  their  results. 
Does  an  ordinary  laborer  need  much  strength,  in 
order  to  vex  from  the  bountiful  earth  an  abundant 
harvest  ;  or  an  artisan,  to  work  the  metals  into  new 
forms  which  are  yet  so  willing  to  be  melted,  pound- 
ed, drawn,  and  tortured  at  his  will  ;  or  a  soldier,  to 
go  successfully  through  the  field  of  battle,  where 
the  chances  of  an  hour  may,  at  any  moment,  dis- 
appoint the  highest  plans  and  the  greatest  eiforts  ? 
Then,  what  an  estate  of  bodily  vigor  must  he  lay 
by  with  care,  who  is  to  be  a  fellow-laborer  with 
God,  in  striving  to  erect  everywhere,  as  each  man 
is  made  and  called  of  him  to  do,  among  the  desola- 
tions of  ruined  humanity,  as  many  temples  of  im- 
mortality as  possible  to  his  praise  forever  ! 

Many  shrink  back  from  labors  and  rewards, 
which  greater  preparations  of  strength  would  enable 
them  to  assume  with  gladness.  One  may  some- 
times serve  God  in  the  most  acceptable  of  all  ways, 
in  getting  ready  to  endure  hardness,  by  and  by,  as 
a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  Not  only  do  "  they 
serve  who  wait,"  but  they  especially,  who  prepare 
themselves  carefully  to  serve. 

Positive  vigor  of  nerve  and  muscle  is  one  of  the 
4 


74  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

greatest  necessities  and  duties  of  good  men,  at  all 
times,  and  in  these  days  peculiarly,  when,  to  say 
the  least,  health  and  strength  are  rare  commodities 
among  scholars.  An  energetic  will  needs  an  ener- 
getic body,  with  which  to  execute  its  purposes. 
And,  when  girding  itself  to  endure,  with  calmness, 
any  of  earth's  many  dark  or  sorrowful  experiences, 
the  mind,  however  heroic  in  its  bearing,  needs  to 
find  in  planting  its  foot  firmly  for  the  shock,  a  sure 
foundation  in  the  amount  of  its  bodily  vigor  on 
which  to  stand.  In  running  after  the  prizes  of  this 
life,  and  much  more  after  those  of  our  high  calling 
in  Christ  Jesus,  the  corruptible  crowns  of  this 
world,  or  the  crown  immortal  on  high,  a  degree  of 
diligence  is  required,  sufficient  to  cover  the  greatest 
possible  outlay  of  energy  and  of  time  ;  and,  in 
meeting  trials  in  the  service  of  God,  or  struggling 
manfully  against  the  changes,  disappointments  and 
losses  of  this  world,  the  heavenly-minded  and  the 
earthly  alike  need  all  the  aids  that  they  can  pro- 
cure, from  the  highest  and  best  condition  of  the 
body. 

3d.  Grace  of  mien  and  manner. 

The  bodily  powers  are  capable  of  very  high  cul- 
ture, in  a  wide,  comprehensive  variety  of  details, 
which  aggregated  make  a  wonderful  contrast  in  the 
result  to  what  would  have  occurred  in  their  ab- 
sence. Health  and  strength,  in  one  of  true  intel- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  75 

lectual  and  moral  elevation  and  refinement,  will  al- 
most irresistibly  produce  grace  in  his  looks,  atti- 
tudes, gestures,  tones,  and  motions.  As  certain 
thoughts,  moods,  and  habits  of  the  mind  are  ex- 
pressed clearly  in  the  all-revealing  features  of  the 
face  ;  and  so  painting  can  show  us,  in  the  well- 
drawn  outer  man,  the  inner  spirit  that  possesses 
him  :  so  men,  when  sitting,  standing,  walking, 
speaking,  and  acting,  at  once  disclose  in  their  very 
postures  and  motions,  and  in  the  quality  of  their 
voices  and  manners,  to  the  eye  of  every  intelli- 
gent beholder,  the  hidden  history  of  their  ideas  of 
themselves  and  of  others,  and  the  style  of  their  im- 
pulses, intentions  and  tastes.  All  personal  culture 
brings  a  rich  harvest  of  pleasure  to  its  possessor. 
The  finished  gentleman,  indeed,  as  he  bears  about 
with  him  perpetually  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
refined  sensibilities  and  gentle  feelings  and  generous 
sentiments  and  cheerful  loving  looks,  tastes  himself, 
all  the  time,  the  gratification  occasioned  to  others 
by  such  characteristics,  of  which  they  quaff  only 
single  draughts  at  long  intervals  in  his  presence. 
And  yet  the  number  of  those  who  know  any  one  of 
us,  in  merely  the  most  incidental  and  general  man- 
ner, and  who,  therefore,  obtain  from  us  only  the 
benefit  to  be  gained  in  the  most  occasional  way,  is 
so  much  the  great  mass  of  those  who  know  us  at 
all ;  and  here,  for  the  same  reason,  lies  so  much  of 


76  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

our  whole  field  of  action  and  influence  in  this  life  ; 
that  it  becomes  every  one,  who  would  be  either 
manly  or  godly,  to  take  heed  that  the  multitude 
before  whom  he  moves  in  so  infrequent  and  momen- 
taiy  a  way,  still  see  in  him,  at  all  times,  every- 
thing to  admire  and  love,  to  desire  and  imitate. 
The  leading  grace,  in  the  bearing  of  the  outward 
man,  is  declared  by  the  world  at  large  in  the  very 
designation  of  the  word  gentleman,  to  be  gentle- 
ness. Gentle  and  genteel  are  in  origin  the  same, 
and  denote  facts  quite  as  much  connected  with  each 
other,  as  the  words  used  to  describe  them.  No  sin- 
gle word  could  so  well  epitomize  all  that  belongs 
to  real  exterior  refinement.  Gentleness  contains 
among  its  elements,  self-possession,  self-restraint, 
the  power  of  thought,  regard  for  others,  ideas  of 
taste  and  subjective  art,  and  habits  of  high  self- 
culture.  Gentleness  was  one  of  the  highest  mani- 
festations that  Christ  made  of  his  divinity,  when  on 
earth  ;  or  that  God  makes  perpetually  of  himself 
in  his  universal  providence.  On  gentleness  as  its 
stock,  any  and  every  grace,  internal  and  external, 
may  be  easily  grafted  ;  while  without  it  all  other 
personal  refinements,  of  whatever  sort,  would  soon 
become  but  withered  flowers  upon  a  broken  stem. 

II.  What,  now,  we  ask  briefly,  are  the  means 
of  gaining  these  ends  described  ? 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  77 

1st.  Conformity  to  the  laws  and  conditions,  ap- 
pointed for  the  body  as  such. 

Not  more  truly  are  the  planetary  worlds  under 
the  power  of  exact  mathematical  law,  or  the  me- 
chanical and  chemical  forces  and  elements  of  nature 
in  their  action,  than  the  muscular,  nervous,  circu- 
latory, respiratory,  and  vital  energies,  both  sever- 
ally and  in  combination,  of  the  animal  organism. 
The  higher,  indeed,  the  sphere  of  its  applications, 
the  more  certain  and  absolute  is  the  reign  of  law 
throughout  the  works  of  God.  The  conditions  of 
bodily  welfare  pertain,  variously,  to  the  subjects  of 
light,  air,  heat,  water,  diet,  clothing,  exercise,  climate, 
occupation,  and  all  the  mental  and  moral  habitudes 
of  the  mind.  Health  is  the  nice  and  even  balance 
of  many  delicate  and  subtle  elements  and  agencies, 
at  work  in  every  part  of  the  complicated  framework 
of  our  entire  being.  Some,  in  seeking  to  regain 
their  health,  attach  quite  too  much  importance  to 
mere  muscular  exercise,  which  alone,  as  many  well 
know,  will  do  but  little  towards  the  thorough  reno- 
vation of  the  physical  system.  Here,  as  in  other 
things,  "  bodily  exercise  profiteth  little  ; "  lit- 
tle, if  not  mixed  largely  with  other  and  better 
things.  A  wide  circle  of  many  influences  must  be 
concentrated,  as  in  the  balancings  of  the  upper 
spheres,  on  the  point  desired  ;  and,  above  all,  within 
the  wheels  of  even  animal  life  must  be  for  its  liv- 


78  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

ing  spirits,  giving  them  all  their  motion,  faith, 
hope,  and  charity  :  the  only  abiding  elements  of 
power  and  progress,  of  health  and  beauty,  in  the 
human  bosom.  Alas  !  how  little  of  religion  is  there 
or  even  of  science,  in  the  mode  in  which  most  men 
treat  their  bodies  !  How  are  its  strings,  which  are 
skilfully  attuned  to  the  wants  of  three-score  years 
and  ten  by  its  Maker,  so  broken  over  all  the  earth, 
that  the  average  life  of  the  race  does  not  amount 
to  even  half  that  brief  term  of  life  !  Those  who 
grasp  most  eagerly  after  the  mere  pleasures  of  the 
body,  most  abuse  it  in  the  act  of  doing  so,  and  take 
the  directest  course  possible  to  lose  even  the  petty 
prize  for  which  they  seek.  Whatever  laws  God 
hath  seen  fit  to  make  for  us,  we  must  see  fit  to 
keep.  Christianity  alone  dignifies  the  body,  as  it 
makes  this  fleshy  tabernacle  the  temple  of  the  im- 
mortal soul  ;  yea,  rather  of  God  its  Maker.  Your 
bodies,  saith  Paul,  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  ;  and  him  that  defileth  the  temple  of  God, 
shall  God  destroy. 

2d.  Thorough  mental  industry,  especially  about 
great  commanding  objects. 

The  body,  like  a  flute  or  viol,  is  all  the  more 
improved  perpetually,  as  the  music  of  sweet  and 
stirring  thoughts  is  breathed  through  it.  The 
greatest  impressions  made  on  the  vital  forces  of  the 
body  are  made  from  within,  and  not  from  without. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  79 

The  currents  of  life  in  our  veins  are  chiefly,  for  the 
fulness  and  strength  of  their  tide,  what  the  mind 
itself  makes  them.  There  is  no  one  law  more  fully 
enthroned  in  all  the  inner  chambers  of  the  soul,  in 
respect  to  its  own  conscious  pleasure,  or  the  great- 
ness of  the  results  of  its  action  to  others,  than  that 
of  the  necessity  of  constant,  earnest  employment. 
Not  more  truly  must  one  lay  out  all  his  powers  to 
climb  a  lofty  precipice,  than  we  must  toil  with  con- 
tinual though  delighted  energy,  to  make  any  just 
approaches  to  that  sphere  of  neighborhood  to  God 
in  our  aims  and  efforts,  for  which  we  were  made. 
For  such  a  life  of  ever  renewed  lofty  labor  our  minds 
were  constituted  ;  as  was  the  body  to  sustain  and 
serve  just  such  natures,  in  their  highest  courses  of 
action.  Thorough,  successful  mental  labor  ;  and 
to  be  successful  it  must  be  thorough  and  unremit- 
ted  :  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  stimulants  to 
health,  and  of  all  safeguards  of  it.  The  higher  the 
object  of  pursuit,  and  the  more  perpetual  the  felt 
inspiration  of  its  claims,  the  deeper  and  richer  will 
be  the  satisfaction  of  strong  and  steady  toil  to  ob- 
tain it.  The  face  of  a  vigorously  industrious  man 
has  a  light  in  it,  that  other  faces  have  not.  A 
man's  wisdom,  saith  Solomon,  maketh  his  face  to 
shine  ;  and  the  impudence  of  his  countenance  is 
taken  away.  His  step  has  a  force  and  quickness  in 
it,  his  form  an  erectness,  and  his  whole  bearing  an 


80  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

air  that  publishes  to  every  one  the  arrival  of  a  true 
man,  wherever  he  goes. 

3.  Habitual  cheerfulness. 

There  is  everything  in  God  and  nature,  and  in 
the  work  of  life  and  its  results,  to  fill  the  heart  with 
joy  in  running  its  earthly  career.  We  are  capable, 
also,  of  possessing  such  a  style  and  assemblage  of 
Christian  graces  ;  and  there  are  so  many  induce- 
ments, invitations,  summons  and  helps  to  us  to  ob- 
tain and  exercise  them  ;  that  it  is  wholly  our  own 
fault,  if  a  single  drop  of  bitterness  remains  in  the 
cup  of  sweets,  which  our  Father  in  heaven  presents 
to  us  here  below.  Whose  heart  was  not  made  to 
be,  and  therefore  cannot  and  ought  not  at  all 
times  to  be,  full  of  gratitude,  love,  faith,  hope,  zeal, 
and  holy  peace  ?  Such  exercises  ever  spreading 
their  light  and  heat  over  the  soul,  and  through  the 
soul  over  the  various  functions  of  the  body,  will 
stimulate  all  their  energies  into  a  full  growth. 
Earnest  self-improvement,  constant  happy  service 
unto  others  and  full  devotion  to  God  :  what  will  not 
these  do,  when  combined,  to  quicken  and  strengthen 
the  innermost  elements  of  life  in  the  organism  of 
the  body  ? 

But  careful,  full  conformity  to  the  physical  laws 
of  our  being,  thorough  mental  industry  and  habitual 
cheerfulness,  are  not  surely  haphazard  qualities,  of 
which  a  youth  can  become  possessed,  he  knows  not 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  81 

how.  His  guides  to  manly  greatness  must  zealously 
lead  him  to  seek  and  to  obtain  these  permanent  re- 
sources of  health,  honor,  and  happiness. 

Secondly.  In  reference  to  the  intellect. 

It  is  in  this  part  of  our  nature,  that  we  differ 
most  from  the  other  orders  of  beings  around  us. 
Here  is  the  throne  of  our  manhood.  The  very  word 
man,  coming  from  the  same  root  as  the  Latin  mens, 
mind  ;  memini  and  reminiscor,  to  remember  ;  moneo, 
to  admonish ;  and  Minerva,  the  goddess  of  wisdom  ; 
and  as  also  the  Greek  /zeVo?,  courage  ;  prjvis,  wrath, 
fjivdo/jLai,  to  remember  ;  and  privveiv,  to  reveal  j*  as 
well  as  the  German  mann  and  mensch,  a  man  ;  and 
meinen,  to  guess  or  intend  ;  means  a  thinker  :  so 
that  he  belies  his  very  designation  as  a  man,  who 
neglects  to  use  and  improve  his  mind,  as  the  very 
crown  and  summit  of  his  whole  being. 

What  now  is  the  complement  of  things  to  be 
gained,  in  this  part  of  our  nature,  by  a  tr-ue,  full 
education  ? 

I.  Intelligence. 

Wonderful,  indeed,  are  the  mind's  powers  of 
receptivity  :  opening  outwards  to  all  parts  of  the 

*  Compare  also  naii/opou,  tiavris  and  pavrevw  and  German  minne, 
love  ;  the  Danish  minne,  remembrance ;  and  the  Slavonic  minyeti, 
to  mean. 

4* 


82  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

universe,  and  capable  of  taking  them  all  in  and  ex- 
panding also  in  its  dimensions,  at  each  new  outlay 
of  its  strength.  The  uses  and  pleasures  of  knowl- 
edge are  the  very  highest  of  our  being.  The  kinds 
of  knowledge  that  must  be  gained,  in  a  course  en- 
titled to  be  called  that  of  the  higher  education,  are 
various. 

1st.  Acquaintance  with  man. 

Into  what  a  proverb  of  universally  acknowledg- 
ed authority  has  that  pithy  saying  of  Pope's  passed. 
"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man."  It  cer- 
tainly is  one  of  our  proper  studies.  In  ourselves, 
individually,  as  in  a  synopsis  or  diagram,  we  are  to 
find  all  the  elements  of  our  science  of  man  ;  since 
in  each  of  us  are  the  contents  of  our  whole  race.  It 
is  always  he,  who  best  paints,  sings,  or  preaches  his 
own  thoughts  and  feelings  as  they  are,  that  most 
evokes  the  sympathy  and  admiration  of  all  around 
him.  The  chord  of  mutual  fellowship  is,  at  once, 
struck  deeply  in  their  hearts.  The  different  kinds 
of  acquaintance  with  man  to  be  gained  are  such,  as, 

(1.)  The  knowledge  of  human  nature. 

Our  whole  life  is,  from  first  to  last,  one  of  con- 
stant relations  to  others.  '  The  social  harmonies  of 
our  being  are  the  highest  part  of  its  framework. 
But  how  can  we  gain  from  others,  or  give  to  them 
what  we  should,  without  an  adequate  comprehen- 
sion of  their  most  facile  points  of  connection  with 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  83 

us.  An  analysis  of  the  elements  of  the  highest  in- 
fluence over  others,  whether  insensible  or  direct, 
and  whether  in  the  mere  forms  of  ordinary  inter- 
course or  in  high  governmental  relations  of  any 
kind,  will  always  detect  these  two  as  chief :  right- 
ness  of  principle  or  thorough  reason,  system  and 
science  in  the  positions  assumed,  and  kindness  in 
one's  feelings  and  manner  in  taking  them.  All  who 
excel  in  generalship,  statesmanship,  education,  or 
parental  duty,  do  so  by  holding  these  two  elements 
in  full  combination  in  their  work.  Kindness  means 
treating  others,  as  belonging  to  the  same  kind. 
This  is  the  origin  of  the  word  ;  as  of  humane  from 
human,  and  of  generous  from  genus  :  all  indicating 
a  disposition  in  full  acquaintance  and  sympathy 
with  the  race  at  large.  But  what  room  is  there,  in 
employing  the  elements  of  power  over  others  al- 
ready mentioned,  for  ever-varying  additions  of  pa- 
tience, tact,  skill,  plan  and  prayer  in  the  mode  of 
reaching  the  desired  result,  both  by  way  of  not 
evoking  any  passions,  prejudices,  or  suspicions 
against  us,  and  also  by  way  of  introducing  the  in- 
fluence which  we  wish  to  exert  in  the  most  insinu- 
ating and  winning  manner.  The  knowledge  of 
human  nature  can  be  best  communicated  to  another, 
by  the  constant  exhibition  of  its  practical  use.  Op- 
portunities of  incidental  instruction,  also,  in  its 
elements  occur  perpetually  in  teaching  the  philoso- 


84  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

phy  of  history,  atid  in  traversing  the  rich  and  ever 
varying  field  of  study  in  the  classical  authors. 
And  if  there  is  one  spot  of  all  the  earth  that  fur- 
nishes, beyond  any  other,  incessant  occasions  for 
discovering  and  watching  the  developments  of 
human  nature,  it  is  the  school  room  ;  and  here  too 
if  anywhere,  a  skilful  acquaintance  with  its  prin- 
ciples is  in  ever  new  demand,  at  all  times. 

(2.)  The  knowledge  of  human  history. 

By  knowing  what  man  has  been,  during  the 
ages  that  have  gone,  under  every  variety  of  climate, 
education,  religion  and  social  development,  we  are 
best  prepared  to  learn  what  he  is  in  himself,  with- 
out reference  to  any  outward  conditions.  It  is  man 
that  gives  to  every  mountain,  river,  sea,  ocean,  or 
continent,  all  its  value,  as  these  are  but  his  sur- 
roundings, and  contrived  to  be  as  they  are,  only  to 
make  his  nature  all  the  more  super-eminent. 

The  study  of  history  is  one  of  the  most  liberal- 
izing of  all  studies.  It  gratifies  the  curiosity  :  it 
furnishes  endless  food  for  thought ;  and  it  multi- 
plies our  own  experience  for  breadth  and  value  by 
as  many  fold,  as  the  area  of  our  observation  is  ex- 
tended outwardly  from  ourselves.  All  human 
character  and  conduct,  fate  and  fortune,  are  covered 
up  within  its  ample  folds.  The  older  the  thinker 
or  writer,  the  larger  his  stores  of  thought  and  the 
wider  the  scope  of  his  powers,  the  higher  always  is 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  85 

the  estimate,  that  he  sets  upon  the  value  of  histori- 
cal knowledge. 

History  must  be  studied  philosophically,  and  its 
lessons  conned  over  and  over  again,  or  its  rich  har- 
vests of  truths  will  be  only  looked  at,  but  not  reaped 
by  the  student.  The  true  history  of  a  nation  is  its 
inner,  not  its  outer  history :  the  history  of  its 
courses  of  thought,  purpose  and  achievement.  Its 
external  show  of  bustle,  pomp  and  pride  may  please 
children,  who  like  noise  and  glitter,  but  not  a  real 
man,  who  looks  beneath  the  surface  after  the  hid- 
den springs  of  all  that  at  any  time  appears  upon  it. 
The  track  of  historical  investigation  that  every 
truly  educated  man  should  traverse  with  care,  be- 
side that  passing  through  the  dimmer  regions  of 
antiquity,  in  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Judea,  and  western 
Asia  :  beginning  with  Greece,  where  the  historic 
muse  first  combined  exactness  and  fulness  of  record, 
with  high  elevation  of  style,  passing  through  Home 
and  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern  Europe,  as  such, 
branches  off  into  separate  lines  of  special  interest, 
through  Germany,  Holland,  France,  Italy,  Spain, 
England  and  America  ;  with  all  of  which  countries 
the  developments  of  modern  progress  are  greatly 
connected.  It  is  singular,  indeed,  that  our  scholars 
are  so  generally  contented,  to  be  ignorant  of  the  his- 
tory of  Germany  and  of  Holland  ;  to  which  two 
countries  we  are  more  indebted  than  to  all  others  of 


86  THE    TRUE   MEASURE    OF    THE 

the  present  day,  except  England.  To  Germany  we 
owe,  to  a  high  degree,  our  blood  and  language  and 
reformed  faith  and  scholarship  ;  and,  like  England, 
Germany  deserves  from  modern  society  at  large,  for 
its  intellectual  explorations  and  discoveries,  for  its 
many  practical  inventions,  and  for  its  general  spirit 
of  progress,  the  highest  possible  appreciation  and 
gratitude. 

History  should  be  taught  so  as  to  hold  up  the 
facts  and  principles  of  our  natures,  as  men,  in  a 
clear  magnified  form,  before  the  eye  ;  to  show  in 
general  the  onward  movement  of  Humanity  from 
age  to  age,  as  well  as  the  particular  steps  of  its 
progress  ;  to  interpret  the  slowly  unfolding  scroll  of 
Divine  Providence  ;  and  to  make  indeed  the  whole 
gorgeous  past  move  as  a  vast  connected  drama, 
with  its  different  acts  and  scenes,  from  one  fixed  be- 
ginning in  man,  to  an  equally  fixed  issue  in  God, 
of  whom  and  for  whom  are  all  things  on  earth  and 
in  Heaven. 

(3.)  The  knowledge  of  human  language  and 
literature. 

Language  is,  for  all  its  uses,  the  chief  of  earthly 
studies.  It  is  in  itself  alone,  as  a  piece  of  mechan- 
ism, of  the  deepest  interest  ;  and  with  such  endless 
connections  does  each  language  run  into  and  out 
of  others,  before,  around  and  behind  it,  that  no  one 
can  be  studied  with  any  adequacy  by  itself  alone. 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  87 

Language  is  our  first  intellectual  want  ;  and  there 
is  nothing  next  after  our  limbs,  that,  to  the  end  of 
life,  we  use  so  much.  There  is  no  such  other  mode 
in  which  we  are  always  doing  good  or  harm.  Life 
and  death  are  in  the  power  of  the  tongue  ;  and 
therefore  by  our  words  we  shall  be  justified,  and  by 
our  words  we  shall  be  condemned. 

There  is  no  intellectual  discipline  at  all  equal  to 
the  studyjof  language,  for  variety  and  force  of  stimu- 
lation to  every  faculty.  No  one  is  really  educated 
who  has  not  made  it  a  study  ;  and  no  attention  to 
it  can  be  called  a  study  which  is  not  analytic  and 
philosophical,  and  which  does  not  centre  in  the 
classical  languages,  as  its  great  fountain  of  interest 
Variety  and  fulness  of  linguistic  culture  are  specially 
demanded,  in  the  American  system  of  education, 
beyond  any  thing  yet  generally  conceived.  All  those 
languages  should  be  embraced  in  our  system  of  edu- 
cation, with  which  as  such  our  own  language  is 
most  fully  connected  ;  and  whose  history  and  lit- 
erature have  attained  to  any  large  growth  and 
maturity. 

The  whole  system  of  female  education  in  this 
country  is,  in  this  respect,  radically  deficient  in  its 
style.  Its  foundation  is  mathematics,  and  should 
be  language.  Woman  has  special  endowments  and 
qualifications  for  success  in  the  mastery  of  language  ; 
and,  next  to  the  power  of  her  character  and  dispo- 


88  THE    TRUE    MEASURE   OF    THE 

sition  if  lovely  and  refined,  there  is  no  instrument 
of  such  great  and  constant  potency  within  her  grasp, 
as  skill  in  the  use  of  language.  Elegance  in  con- 
versation, and  the  skilful  use  of  the  pen  in  corre- 
spondence and  composition,  are  intellectual  orna- 
ments, which  every  cultivated  lady  should  obtain 
and  keep  with  diligence.  Many  a  woman,  capable 
of  exalted  usefulness  and  happiness,  now  walks 
through  her  earthly  history  with  little  strength  or 
zeal  or  joy,  unconscious  of  her  own  real  undeveloped 
nobility  of  mind  ;  because  untrained  to  the  clear, 
definite,  earnest  expression  of  thought,  and  to  any 
high  sensibility  to  the  charms  of  beautiful  language. 
The  so-called  female  college  or  university,  that 
shall  revolutionize  the  present  basis  and  mode  of 
conducting  female  education,  and  mark  out  for  its 
pupils  a  thorough,  persistent  course  of  wide  and 
high  study  in  the  languages,  ancient  and  modern, 
will  do  a  work  for  the  age  and  the  female  sex  and 
the  world,  for  which  the  centuries  have  been  long 
waiting. 

Philology  has  recently,  by  a  wondrous  series  of 
explorations,  brought  to  light  a  wide  array  of  most 
curious  and  valuable  facts,  concerning  the  different 
languages  of  the  world,  whether  viewed  singly  or  in 
combination.  There  is  no  more  inviting  field  of  re- 
search now  open  before  an  earnest,  deep-searching 
mind.  Here  is  a  land  abounding  in  mines  of  gold 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  89 

and  precious  stones.  Labor  is  sure  of  its  reward, 
and  glittering  prizes  on  every  side  await  discovery. 
There  is  a  true  high  Christian  method  of  teach- 
ing the  classics,  worthy  of  the  name.  In  the  ele- 
gant contributions  of  ancient  authors  to  the  poetry, 
history,  literature  and  philosophy  of  the  world,  we 
see  as  in  a  mirror,  the  social  ideas  and  habits  and 
manners  of  their  times  ;  and  in  what  grand  delight- 
ful contrast  to  the  wants  and  woes  of  heathen  civili- 
zation, in  its  most  refined  form,  do  the  laws  and 
institutions,  the  customs  and  comforts,  of  modern 
Christendom  reveal  themselves  to  view.  Perpetual 
opportunity  is  here  furnished  for  tracing  the  direc- 
tions, degrees  and  processes  of  human  advancement. 
And  how  can  the  wants  of  our  moral  nature  be 
exhibited,  and  the  need  of  special  divine  revelation 
for  the  right  shaping  of  our  opinions  and  our  lives, 
when  wandering  amid  such  a  vast  collection  of  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  ruins  !  In  contrast  also 
with  that  corrupt  mythology,  amid  the  sensual  im- 
agery of  which  so  many  love  to  tarry,  as  if  pure 
poetic  idealism  and  moral  impurity  could,  by  any 
possibility,  be  truly  and  beautifully  joined  together, 
how  does  the  innate  loveliness  of  Bible-truth  ap- 
pear :  as  the  prophet  of  the  old  covenant,  and  the 
apostle  of  the  new,  make  the  pontiff  and  the  augur 
of  heathen  Home  appear  side  by  side  with  them, 
like  savages,  standing  rough  and  grim  in  the  pres- 


90  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

ence  of  men,  whose  faces  are  illuminated  with  sub- 
lime thought  and  sweet  benevolent  feeling. 

Literature  and  its  history  also  furnish  a  large 
and  fruitful  field  of  study  and  instruction.  Here 
language  is  employed,  not  as  in  the  daily  inter- 
course of  life,  for  present  uses,  but  as  the  guardian 
of  the  precious  treasures  of  thought  and  experience, 
laid  by  in  the  past  for  the  benefit  of  all  succeeding 
ages.  Here  are  to  be  found,  alike,  the  se  lee  test 
monuments  of  human  genius,  and  the  most  endur- 
ing memorials  of  human  toil. 

The  historic  literature  of  the  world  hangs 
together,  in  a  connected  chain  of  sequences,  from 
first  to  last.  Modern  literature  is  but  the  broader 
and  fuller  efflorescence  of  the  higher  growths  of 
thought,  that  have  appeared  on  the  summits  of 
each  preceding  age.  This  age  is  what  it  is,  and 
English  literature  has  become  what  it  is,  because 
Greece  and  Kome,  and  Italy,  Germany,  France, 
Spain  and  Holland,  from  whom  in  various  degrees 
it  has  derived  its  substance,  form  and  features, 
were  each  respectively  what  they  were.  There  is 
no  one  body  of  literature  of  such  majestic  propor- 
tions, and  of  so  many  beautiful  and  divine  aspects, 
as  our  own  ;  and  this,  according  not  only  to  our 
own  view  which  might  be  unconsciously  perverted, 
but  that  also  of  the  great  men  of  other  nations,  as 
loudly  proclaimed  in  many  directions.  Our  own 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  91 

literature,  I  have  said  ;  for  we  are  richer  in  litera- 
ture than  even  England  herself,  as  we  own  all  hers 
and  ours  also.  It  is  a  great  defect  in  our  common 
style  of  personal  self-improvement,  as  well  as  of  our 
system  of  public  instruction,  that  so  little  account 
is  had,  or  rather  in  most  cases  no  account  at  all  is 
had,  of  the  vast  continent  of  literature  to  be  found 
in  our  language  :  excelling  in  breadth  and  variety 
and  the  luxuriance  of  its  growths,  all  the  literature 
of  the  world,  present  and  past  beside.  Surely  here 
again,  "  the  prophet  is  without  honor  in  his  own 
country."  There  ought  to  be,  in  all  our  Colleges,  a 
professorship  of  English  literature,  whose  function 
it  should  be  to  unfold  its  history,  in  rich  living 
discourse,  with  ample  sketches  of  the  leading 
literary  men  of  England  and  America,  accompanied 
with  a  broad  and  generous  spirit  of  criticism  upon 
the  substance  and  style  of  the  great  works  in  our 
language  :  a  professorship,  the  text-book  for  whose 
recitations  should  be  Shakspeare  ;  which  ought  to 
be  for  its  own  worth  and  the  value  of  its  influence 
in  training  our  young  men  to  the  highest  style  of 
native  growth,  a  classic  held  in  the  greatest  honor, 
by  those  of  Trans- Atlantic  and  Cis-Atlantic  English 
blood  alike.  In  connection  with  our  own  literature, 
the  man  of  any  thing  like  full  education  will  ac- 
quaint himself  with  Grecian  and  Koman  literature 
also,  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  which,  indeed, 


92  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

he  cannot  understand  or  appreciate  our  own  ;  as 
well  as  with  German  and  French  belles-lettres, 
especially  German,  so  full  of  all  vital  energies  of 
thought  and  feeling.  JEsthetical  culture  brings 
great  rewards  to  its  possessor,  both  in  respect  to  his 
high  personal  enjoyment  and  in  respect  to  his  in- 
fluence, as  a  thinker  and  writer  over  others.  No 
eye  can  gaze  unmoved  upon  structures  of  beauty  in 
the  world  of  thought,  or  see  them  rise  as  if  by  magic 
like  fairy  castles,  under  hands  skilful  in  rearing 
them,  without  admiration. 

To  this  department  of  study,  criticism  and 
rhetoric  belong,  the  two  chief  forms  of  literary  art ; 
which  are  of  the  highest  value  when  supplemental 
to  previous  courses  of  thorough  mental  discipline, 
but  are  never  to  be,  as  they  sometimes  have  been, 
substituted  for  them.  As  well  might  one  think  of 
filling  the  parts  of  a  huge  edifice  which  should  be 
occupied  by  solid  masonry,  with  the  light  ornamen- 
tal work  that  belongs  only  to  its  finishings. 

(4.)  The  knowledge  of  human  wants. 

The  true  object  of  education  is,  to  acquire  the 
power  and  the  disposition  to  do  good  to  the  highest 
possible  degree.  As  the  will  is  made  sovereign  in 
the  constitution  of  the  mind  itself,  so  the  moral  is 
the  crowning  glory  of  all  the  gowers  and  faculties 
of  our  entire  manhood.  It  is  the  law  prevailing 
throughout  the  whole  universe  of  minds,  that  he 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  93 

who  has  ohtained  treasures  of  any  land  must  share 
them  with  others  ;  or  be  made  miserable  by  with- 
holding them.  It  is  as  logically  and  practically 
necessary  for  a  man  to  know  the  actual  state  of  the 
world  in  which  and  for  which  he  is  fitting  himself 
to  act ;  and  whose  demands  upon  his  thoughts  and 
labors  he  is  to  meet  rightly,  or  his  life  will  be  a  fail- 
ure :  as  for  one  who  is  constructing  a  steam  en- 
gine or  a  telescope,  to  understand  well  the  prin- 
ciples to  be  followed^  and  the  ends  to  be  gained  by 
his  mechanism,  when  completed.  Many  make  in 
education  the  same  mistake  that  others  do  in  re- 
ligion :  in  treating  it  as  if  having  a  distinct  exist- 
ence by  itself,  separate  from  its  relations.  But  all 
things  are  for  their  uses  ;  and  all  the  wonders  and 
beauties  of  their  being  are  found  in  their  many  and 
marvellous  adaptations  to  those  uses  ;  and  so  among 
the  whole  army  of  intelligent  beings,  he  that 
would  be  the  greatest  of  all  must  be  the  servant  of 
all.  To  do  good  as  we  have  opportunity  :  this  is 
the  law  that  is  not  only  appointed  of  God,  but 
reigns  self-ordained  also  over  every  being  that  pos- 
sesses reason  and  conscience.  So  many  have  lack- 
lustre eyes  in  their  studies,  because  they  have  no 
great  controlling  object  of  thought  and  interest  in 
view.  The  mind  is  made  to  lay  out  its  force  upon 
the  objective  world,  as  upon  it  also  that  outer  world 
is  made  to  pour  perpetually  all  its  myriad  influences. 


94  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

Each  is  made  for  the  other  ;  and  as  in  the  partner- 
ship of  kindred  hearts  in  life  it  is  not  good  for 
either  to  be  alone.  The  reason  why  so  many  fail  in 
the  various  professions  :  as  indeed  well  nigh  the 
great  majority  do  :  is  because  they  make  a  wrong 
selection  for  themselves  ;  and  this,  because  their 
ulterior  aims  are  such  as  to  pervert  their  judgment 
and  their  action. 

Another  of  the  general  forms  of  intelligence  to 
be  gained  in  the  higher  education,  is, 

2d.  Acquaintance  with  science. 

All  sciences  and  all  branches  of  knowledge  have 
been  interwoven  with  each  other  into  a  beauteous 
garment  of  praise  to  their  great  Author  ;  which 
like  a  royal  robe  of  many  colors  he  has  dropped,  as 
if  with  purposed  carelessness,  among  his  earthly 
children,  that  they  might  in  disentangling  its 
materials  learn  to  know  him  in  the  greatness  of  his 
power  and  the  goodness  of  his  love. 

The  sciences,  so-called,  are  the  exact  sciences, 
(or  the  mathematics,)  the  natural  sciences,  and 
mental,  moral,  legal  and  political  science,  or  the 
science  of  political  economy.  Some  knowledge  of 
the  mathematics  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
most  ordinary  transactions  of  business.  The  utili- 
ties of  mixed  mathematics,  from  simple  arithmetic 
up  to  any  and  all  of  the  applications  of  trigonome- 
try and  conic  sections,  are  obvious  as  a  matter  of 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  95 

practical  profit  to  those  who  employ  them.  But 
pure  mathematics,  from  algebra  through  all  parts 
of  the  calculus,  have  in  them  a  higher  value  still  to 
the  mind  itself,  in  the  inward  wrestling  to  which 
they  summon  it  with  difficulties,  in  that  invisible, 
wondrous  thought-land,  where  an  intellect  of  bold, 
strong  tread  most  loves  to  wander.  The  higher 
walks  and  visions  and  exhilarations  of  mathemat- 
ical science,  must  of  course  be  reserved  for  that 
little  circle  of  minds,  which  are  so  charmed  with  its 
abstractions,  as  to  leave  every  thing  else  neglected 
by  the  wayside  in  order  to  seek  after  them.  Great 
absorption  in  this  one  field  of  investigation,  as  in- 
deed in  any  other,  can  be  had  only  at  the  sacrifice 
of  inquiry  and  progress  somewhere  else.  For  the 
general  purposes  of  education,  the  mathematics  do 
not  compare  at  all  in  power  of  drill,  and  variety  of 
mental  exercise,  and  so  of  consequent  mental 
growth,  with  the  classics. 

As  to  the  natural  sciences  :  they  are  all,  more 
or  less,  and  generally  in  the  most  intimate  manner 
connected  with  the  mathematics,  according  to 
whose  principles  the  inward  elements  of  matter  are 
mixed  together,  and  its  outward  forms  are  con- 
structed. No  education  can  be  complete,  which 
passes  by  the  laws  and  forces  of  nature  :  as  with 
them  every  man  is  connected,  in  some  way,  at  every 
moment.  He  acts  on  them,  and  through  them  at 


96  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

all  times.  By  new  combinations  of  some  of  their 
most  subtle  agencies,  or  new  uses  of  old  combina- 
tions, some  of  the  highest  points  of  progress  in  our 
age  have  been  reached.  And  certainly  that  science, 
which  concerns  itself  specifically  with  the  human  or- 
ganism, and  with  the  vital  elements  of  its  health 
and  growth  and  force,  claims  with  more  imperative- 
ness than  any  other  the  earnest  attention  of  every 
educated  man. 

Many  of  the  natural  sciences  are  of  very  recent 
discovery,  as  geology,  chemistry  and  physiology ; 
and  yet  these  are  among  the  sciences  that  are  now 
most  influential  upon  human  thought  and  progress. 
Geology  has  given  eyes  to  men  which  can  penetrate 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  read  the  mystic  con- 
tents of  its  dark  bosom  ;  so  that,  like  Le  Yerrier 
before  the  observer  pointed  the  instrument  toward 
the  new  star  that  he  could  himself  announce  but 
could  not  see,  the  geologist  ere  the  laborer  lifts  his 
spade  can  point  with  a  sure  finger  to  the  mines  of 
coal,  or  iron,  or  gold,  that  lie  deep  out  of  sight  be- 
neath. Chemistry,  also,  has  broken  the  seals  that 
before  held  the  secret  essences  of  things  together  ; 
arid  taught  us  how  to  loose  or  bind,  at  our  will,  the 
hidden  ties  of  their  connection.  The  very  lightning, 
the  most  untamable  in  itself  of  all  God's  ministers 
among  the  winds  and  flaming  fire,  has  been  made 
to  come  and  go  at  our  bidding,  on  errands  great  and 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  97 

small,  and  to  quietly  spell  out  our  various  human 
alphabets  :  sounding  distinctly  every  letter  across 
seas  and  continents  in  the  hearing  of  all  nations. 
From  the  science  of  physiology,  what  leaves  of  heal- 
ing, as  from  the  Tree  of  Lite,  have  been  scattered 
over  all  this  generation  !  It  has  given  additional 
honor  to  the  body  and  to  our  life  in  it,  and  poured 
streams  of  gladness  into  all  the  fountains  of  our 
earthly  experience.  Many  of  the  natural  sciences, 
also,  have  made  such  great  advancement  during  the 
last  century,  as  though  possessing  the  same  name 
to  have  yet  become  themselves  quite  new  sciences  ; 
as  natural  philosophy,  in  all  its  departments,  espe- 
cially in  electricity  and  galvanism  ;  astronomy,  in 
its  improved  instruments  and  discoveries ;  miner- 
alogy and  botany,  which  have  been  wondrously  en- 
larged in  their  contents  and  beautified  in  their 
arrangements.  The  pursuit  of  the  natural  sciences, 
beside  the  general  advantage  which  it  furnishes  of 
enlarging  the  boundaries  of  knowledge,  and  multi- 
plying greatly  the  topics  of  thought,  and  the 
materials  for  analogical  reasoning  and  illustration, 
has  also  a  high  value  as  a  special  variation  of  the 
best  mode  of  mental  discipline  :  furnishing,  in  con- 
nection with  all  the  other  elements  of  educational 
improvement  for  the  young,  a  wide  and  diversified 
range  of  appeals  and  stimulations  and  rewards  to 
the  spirit  of  study.  But,  adopted  as  the  sole  path 


98  THE    TRUE    MEASURE    OF    THE 

of  intellectual  development,  as  if  having  any  suffi- 
ciency in  itself  to  compass  all  the  ends  to  be  gained, 
it  realizes  but  a  very  partial  benefit  to  the  student : 
giving  him  large  information  and  pleasure,  but  rob- 
bing him  of  all  those  higher  growths  of  strength  and 
beauty  of  mind,  which  can  be  acquired  only  by  the 
wide,  philosophical  and  artistic  study  of  language. 
Here  is  the  great  defect  of  the  French  university 
system,  which  not  only  rests  on  the  mathematics  and 
natural  sciences  as  its  base,  but  confines  almost  its 
whole  amplitude  within  them.  The  German  sys- 
tem which  lays  its  foundations  in  linguistic  culture, 
is  right  in  its  great  fundamental  idea,  but  inade- 
quate in  the  structure  which  it  rears  upon  them. 
Their  whole  education,  as  such,  is  linguistic  educa- 
tion. In  France,  science,  and  in  Germany,  lan- 
guage, is  pursued  as  an  end  and  not  as  a  means 
except  for  the  mere  purposes  of  a  livelihood.  The 
end  sought  is  the  pleasures  of  intellectual  conquest, 
or  the  rewards  of  honor ;  while  in  every  case  the 
only  objects  to  be  aimed  at  in  an  education  are,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  develop  in  full  perfection  the  secret 
germinal  forces  and  elements  of  the  mind,  as  such, 
and  on  the  other  to  prepare  each  individual  to  pur- 
sue through  life  the  most  high  and  manly  course 
possible,  of  purposed  toil  for  God  and  his  fellow- 
men.  Neither  the  French  nor  German  system  have 
the  impress  of  humanity  and  Christianity  upon 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  99 

them.  Utility  is  not  the  law  of  their  being.  In 
the  English,  and  particularly  the  American  system, 
when  enlarged  and  perfected  in  all  its  details  espe- 
cially in  the  department  of  language,  is  the  truest 
model  yet  conceived  of  what  the  people  that  are  to 
be  will  ere  long  erect  as  their  standard  of  general 
education  in  all  countries  and  ages. 

The  natural  sciences  ought  to  be  taught,  so  as 
always  to  show  the  great  architect  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  manifestly  revealed  in  His  works.  Those 
works  are  everywhere  full  of  mechanical  principles 
and  adaptations,  and  press  in  many  varied  forms 
perpetually  the  argument  of  design  upon  our 
hearts  ;  one  of  whose  first  and  deepest  intuitions  it 
is,  that  design  everywhere  presupposes,  by  neces- 
sity, a  designer.  In  the  adaptations  of  anatomy, 
one  to  the  other,  and  the  wonderful  conformation 
of  man's  structure  in  all  parts  of  his  nature  to  the 
elements  and  resources  of  the  surrounding  universe, 
from  which  he  is  to  draw  his  experience,  and  on 
which  and  through  which  he  is  to  work  his  will : 
himself,  though  so  small,  yet  the  actual  counterpart 
of  all  that  is  without  him  and  around  him  ;  how 
plainly  do  we  see  the  skilful  loving  mighty  handi- 
work of  God  !  And,  in  the  minute  mathematical 
and  dynamical  proportions  and  analytical  discrimi- 
nations of  chemistry,  as  well  as  in  all  the  vast,  and 
yet  well-defined  records  of  geology,  what  secret, 


100        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

and  at  the  same  time  what  intelligible  and  unmis- 
takable proofs  of  God's  presence,  amid  the  forces 
and  essences  of  nature,  to  guide  them  to  His  own 
high  ends  and  to  man's  uses  for  His  kingdom  and 
glory  !  Since  the  assent  of  the  mind  is  so  instant 
and  instinctive  to  the  necessary  connection  between 
every  contrivance  and  its  contriver,  that  no  two 
things  can  be  jointed  or  framed  together,  however 
rudely,  without  creating  the  feeling,  as  infallibly  as 
if  a  matter  of  vision  itself,  that  it  is  the  work  of 
some  designing  human  hand  ;  it  is  wonderful,  that 
such  a  pile  of  multitudinous  appeals  should  be  set 
up  everywhere  before  the  human  mind  by  God,  to 
this  so  instinctive  quick  and  necessary  conviction. 
Geology  of  all  the  sciences  is  foremost  in  neces- 
sitating the  admission  on  the  part  of  all  who  know 
its  facts,  that  every  thing  now  living  upon  earth  has 
had  a  recent  beginning,  and  so  a  recent  origination 
in  the  will  of  some  great  Contriving  Hand.  Ani- 
mal Physiology  too  shows,  in  each  animal  structure 
as  in  every  other  one  of  the  same  species,  and  in 
the  last  as  precisely  and  wonderfully  as  in  the  first 
one  of  the  kind,  the  same  numerous  inward  special- 
ties and  harmonies  of  plan  and  correlation  :  part 
with  part  and  each  part  with  the  whole.  Here 
God,  the  great  -benevolent  Creator  of  man,  shows 
Himself  as  plainly  to  the  eye  of  Reason  as  well  as 
of  Faith,  as  when  first  entering  upon  the  execution 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  '  101 

of  His  great  world-plan.  Here  therefore  science 
should  show  Him  and  His  footsteps  to  the  view. 

Mental  science,  or  the  science  of  the  human 
mind,  bears  in  its  very  designation  its  title  to  the 
first  rank  of  human  studies.  With  logic,  the  science 
of  reasoning,  it  forms  one  of  the  best  of  all  modes 
of  strengthening  the  intellectual  faculties,  when  in 
their  higher  stages  of  power  and  progress.  In  meta- 
physical studies,  indeed,  the  loftiest  minds  in  all 
ages  have  delighted  to  dwell,  like  eagles  in  their 
mountain  homes.  The  greatest  forces  that  have 
moved  the  world  in  any  age  have  been  metaphysi- 
cal. To  a  mind  at  all  addicted  to  coasting  around 
the  shore  of  things  invisible,  and  hovering  about  its 
secret  wonders,  to  one  that  knows  the  mystic  spell 
of  abstract  thought,  there  is  a  pleasure,  a  rapture 
rather,  in  philosophic  speculation,  which  is  to  be 
found  outside  of  the  realm  of  holy  work  and  worship, 
nowhere  else. 

Moral  science,  or  ethics,  must  have  also  its 
proper  place  in  the  course  of  the  higher  education. 
This  is  the  science  of  human  duty.  It  determines 
the  sphere  of  right  and  wrong  for  both  individuals 
and  communities,  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  Its 
facts  and  principles  are  much  more  plain,  than  those 
of  metaphysics  ;  and  the  profit  of  the  study  is, 
rather,  distinctively  moral  than  intellectual. 

Legal  science  pertains  to  the  whole  scope  and 


102        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

sphere  of  human  laws,  whether  founded  in  natural 
equity,  common  custom,  or  positive  statute.  Here 
is  the  realm  of  nice  distinctions  and  close  definitions, 
and  of  strong  argumentation,  welded  and  clamped 
and  riveted  together.  Both  as  a  matter  of  mental 
discipline  and  of  personal  information,  the  study  of 
the  general  principles  of  law,  that  is,  of  its  great 
elementary  facts  and  features  as  a  science,  is,  if  not 
as  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity  yet  as  one  of  very 
great  value,  worthy  to  he  embraced  in  the  specific 
course  which  deserves  to  be  called  that  of  the  higher 
education. 

The  science  of  political  economy,  although  of  but 
recent  establishment,  is  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  in- 
ductive sciences.  Its  deductions  are  large  indeed, 
having  applications  as  wide,  not  only  as  the  bound- 
aries of  national  development  and  prosperity,  but 
also  as  those  of  humanity  itself,  in  all  the  nmtual 
bearings  of  international  exchanges,  and  the  social 
stimulations  and  advantages  of  general  commercial 
intercourse.  In  a  country,  where  each  man  directly 
decides  who  shall  rule  its  interests  and  according 
to  what  policy  ;  and  where,  at  any  moment,  he  may 
be  elevated  himself  by  popular  suffrage  to  offices 
of  trust  and  service  of  the  highest  kind,  the  science 
of  political  economy,  at  once  so  profound,  engaging 
and  profitable,  should  be  of  course  included  in  a 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  103 

high,  and  true  style  of  preparation  for  the  duties  of 
life. 

From  the  rapid  survey  now  taken  of  the  sphere 
of  knowledge  to  be  possessed  by  the  true  scholar, 
how  obvious  is  it  that  the  prevailing  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  academic,  collegiate  and  professional  edu- 
cation alike,  are  altogether  too  narrow  !  The  time 
is  coining  because  it  is  needful  that  it  should,  when 
the  lad  of  ordinary  endowments  and  attainments,  at 
twelve,  shall  be  led  for  six  short,  not  long,  succes- 
sive years  through  a  preparatory  course  of  earnest, 
vigorous,  ever-triumphant  study :  in  the  classics, 
through  all  the  vast  variety  of  rich,  delightful  fields 
of  investigation  that  they  open  in  ground  forms, 
syntax,  prosody,  etymology,  grammatical  and  lexi- 
cal, both  special  and  comparative,  antiquities,  geog- 
raphy, biography  and  history  :  in  the  mathemat- 
ics, up  to  the  broad  and  glowing  plane  of  its  higher 
elements  and  formulas  :  in  geography  and  history, 
ancient  and  modern,  over  all  their  wide  enchanting 
fields  of  interest ;  and  in  the  ancient  and  modern 
languages,  especially  the  French  and  German,  to 
the  point  of  a  full  and  facile  possession,  not  only  of 
the  languages  themselves,  but  also  of  much  of  their 
best  literature.  With  such  an  outfit  secured,  and 
made  permanent  by  the  most  accurate  and  energetic 
drill  throughout,  especially  in  grammar  in  all  its 
full  scientific  elements  and  relations ;  with  the 


104        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

superadded  advantage  of  a  complete  comprehension 
and  appreciation  of  the  facts  of  physiology,  so  as  to 
know  and  to  keep  the  rules  of  health :  the  young 
academician  of  a  future  day  will  be  ready  to  enter 
upon  the  more  advanced  stage  of  university-educa- 
tion, which  will  then  be  opened  before  him.  Into 
that  higher  form,  our  present,  low,  collegiate  style 
of  education  must  ere  long  be  raised.  Through  six, 
instead  of  four  years,  the  eager  student  well  ac- 
coutred for  his  work,  fond  of  intellectual  labor  and 
panting  to  conquer  new  difficulties,  should  be  led 
in  this  part  of  his  course  also  :  beginning  for  his 
first  year  with  those  studies  which  are  now  assigned 
to  the  second  or  third  year  of  the  college  course, 
and  mounting  up  along  a  path  of  much  more  com- 
plete daily  toil  than  is  now  assigned  for  him,  year 
after  year,  into  one  region  after  another  of  the  high- 
est and  broadest,  most  analytic  and  philosophic 
study,  in  the  departments  of  language,  science, 
criticism  and  art,  throughout  the  whole  range  of 
the  ancient  classics  and  of  the  modern,  especially 
the  English  and  German.  With  three  years  more 
of  strict  professional  study,  studying  both  the  science 
and  the  history  of  it  ;  deeply  and  gladly  involved  in 
the  precious  toil  of  original  composition,  and  in  in- 
spiring converse,  all  the  time,  with  the  elect  minds 
of  all  ages  bending  in  holy  silence  from  the  thrones 
of  their  written  thoughts  to  greet  him  :  what  a  prep- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  105 

aratioii  for  entering  on  the  work  of  making  thought 
for  others,  and  guiding  their  actions  to  great  issues, 
would  such  an  one  have  !  What  young  giants  at 
twenty-seven  would  then  be  found  among  us,  in- 
stead of  the  pigmies  at  fifty,  not  a  few  of  them 
covered  with  titles  to  conceal  their  nakedness,  which 
are  now  quite  too  abundant  over  all  the  land. 

Another  of  the  higher  kinds  of  intelligence  to  be 
gained  is, 

3d.  Acquaintance  with  nature. 

Nature  is  the  home  of  beauty  ;  for  it  is  God's 
pavilion  among  the  sons  of  men.  Here,  as  Adam 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God  walking  among  the 
trees  of  the  garden,  the  man  of  true  thought  and 
feeling  meets  everywhere,  and  almost  in  open  vision, 
the  great,  good  Father  of  lights  who  seems  to  be, 
as  he  is,  everywhere  waiting  to  be  gracious  unto 
him.  Here  is  perpetual  refreshment  for  the  eye 
and  the  heart.  Many  have  indeed  managed  the 
sublime  work  of  education  in  a  way  that  divorced 
the  victims  of  their  perverted  ideas  from  nature, 
and  art  and  man  and  God,  and  left  them  in  an  in- 
tensely isolated  state,  at  the  best,  of  mere  elegant 
good -for-no  thingness  ;  but  a  true  education  ends  in 
the  marriage  of  the  soul  to  every  thing  great  and 
good  and  true  in  the  universe.  As  poets  delight  to 
gather  garlands  of  flowers  from  the  fields,  and  hang 

them   around   the  necks  of  the   muses :  as  kings 
5* 


106        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

lavishly  adorn  their  walls  within,  for  their  own  eyes, 
with  pictures  of  the  beauty  that  is  without,  on 
which  every  one  can  gaze  nor  ask  permission :  as 
divine  revelation  comes  clothed  to  us  in  a  garb  of 
many  colors,  taken  from  heaven  and  earth  ;  so,  of 
all  places  in  the  world,  the  silent,  meditative  walks 
of  the  student  should  be  carefully  festooned  with 
beauty  ;  and  his  cloistered  chamber  should  be  fra- 
grant with  the  scent  of  Eden.  As  Truth  is  his  at- 
tending Genius  in  the  world  of  thought,  so  should 
Beauty  be  in  that  of  sight.  What  vivid  illustra- 
tions can  one  who  loves  nature  himself,  draw  to  his 
work  as  a  teacher  ;  and  with  what  perpetual  relish 
and  profit  by  his  pupils,  as  did  the  divine  Saviour, 
who  so  loved  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  in  his 
instructions  to  his  disciples  !  Their  imagination 
craves  such  food  :  it  belongs  to  them  ;  and  he  who 
negligently  or  unconsciously  withholds  it  from  them, 
robs  them  of  something  far  more  precious  than  food 
or  raiment. 

A  youth  should  be  taught  both  at  home  and  in 
school ;  and  for  this  reason,  life  in  the  country  is  so 
much  better  than  in  the  city  ;  to  observe  the  ever- 
changing  forms  and  scenes  of  nature,  around  and 
above  him.  Fine  landscapes,  sunrises  and  sunsets, 
the  ever-varying  clouds,  majestic  storms  with  their 
thunder- trumpets,  the  moon  and  stars  by  night, 
mountain  heights,  dells,  and  gorges  and  deep  caves, 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  107 

the  solemn  hush  of  the  forest,  and  its  more  solemn 
moan,  the  calm  hour  of  twilight,  the  noise  of  water- 
falls, the  laughing  stream,  the  placid  lake,  the  surg- 
ing sea,  the  universal  chorus  of  birds,  as  the  gates 
of  day  open  at  dawn  and  shut  at  eve  upon  us,  and 
all  nature  full,  in  high  keys  and  low,  of  the  voices 
of  happy  creatures  summering  away  their  lives  in 
gladness  :  what  endless  food  do  these  all  furnish  for 
the  inspiration  of  thought  and  feeling  ! 

Beauty  of  form  or  outline  is  to  he  seen  and  stud- 
ied in  nature,  as  also  beauty  of  color  or  of  light  and 
shade  ;  and  not  alone  these  mere  external  aspects, 
but  also  the  inward  order  of  mechanism,  and  the 
designs  of  love  that  they  reveal,  and  of  which  the 
glittering  or  elegant  exterior  is  but  the  fitting  en- 
closure. 

It  is  surely  one  of  the  most  surprising  proofs  of 
man's  inward  blindness,  that  nature,  the  very  book 
whose  letters  are  largest,  and  which  God  holds  most 
closely  before  the  eyes  of  men,  and  the  only  one  con- 
taining the  lessons  of  His  wisdom  and  love,  which  is 
ever  opened  to  the  mass  of  mankind,  is  still  the  very 
one,  in  which  the  great  majority  of  the  race  read  not 
a  lesson,  and  see  not  even  a  single  letter. 

Let  no  student  feel,  wherever  he  is,  that  he  is 
denied  a  high  and  true  intercourse  with  nature. 
There  are  walks  for  meditation,  and  heights  for 
prospect  even  in  the  crowded  city,  where  swarms 


108       THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

cover  every  open  space,  and  where  all  original  va- 
riations of  surface  are  'carefully  evened  ;  and  the 
scenery  of  the  sky  is  there,  and  of  the  sea  or  of 
some  mighty  stream  hastening  towards  it  ;  whose 
bosom  is  ever  heaving  with  the  burdens  of  com- 
merce, and  within  whose  arms  its  sails,  like  doves 
whispering  to  each  other,  gather  themselves  toge- 
ther. And  in  the  want  of  all  material  stimulations 
to  poetic  sensibility,  there  are  yet  books  full  of 
thought-pictures  of  the  selectest  beauty,  which  in- 
deed have  been  nearly  always  drawn  with  the  most 
effect  by  those,  who  amid  the  cares  of  city  life  have 
pined  for  the  remembrances  of  a  youth  spent  under 
more  open  skies,  and  on  broader  fields,  and  under 
the  shadow  of  the  everlasting  hills. 

Another  of  the  higher  forms  of  intelligence  to 
be  gained,  is, 

4th.  Acquaintance  with  art. 

Among  the  elements  of  the  higher  education, 
should  be  instruction  in  the  principles  of  art.  By 
art  is*  meant  in  the  abstract  the  theory,  and  in  the 
concrete  the  faculty,  of  rightly  executing,  or  ex- 
pressing, the  more  tender,  beautiful,  or  sublime 
conceptions  of  the  human  mind.  Art  is  therefore 
the  revealer  of  the  best  moods  of  humanity  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  the  highest  capacities  on  the  oth- 
er, of  the  objects  on  which  the  artist  works,  to  re- 
ceive and  to  keep  the  image  of  himself  and  of  his 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  109 

thoughts,  that  he  would  stamp  upon  them.  Art 
has  its  great  generalizations  and  its  grand  ideals, 
and  may  be  taught  and  studied  in  the  sphere  of  its 
general  relations  and  uses,  without  centralizing 
one's  thoughts  on  any  one  specific  department  of  it. 
The  careful  study  of  Keynolds  and  Kuskin,  than 
whom  no  modern  writer  displays  more  power  and 
beauty  of  thought,  will  open  the  eye  to  see  and  the 
heart  to  feel,  through  what  a  world  of  wonders  our 
path  of  daily  life,  however  common,  passes.  In 
what  heathenish  neglect  is  the  art-side  of  our  na- 
tures left  by  almost  every  one,  who  assumes  or  ven- 
tures upon  the  holy  work  of  educating  them, 
whether  at  home  or  at  school  !  Man  has  indeed  an 
organism  of  susceptibilities  and  capacities,  vaster 
than  it  has  entered  into  the  hearts  of  most  men  to 
conceive  ;  and  the  work  of  leading  him  up  to  glory 
and  to  God  is  the  grandest  work,  for  height  and 
breadth,  in  which  the  efforts  of  any  one  can  be  em- 
ployed. 

But  there  is  a  still  higher  form  yet  of  intelli- 
gence to  be  gained  :  higher  in  itself,  and  higher  in 
its  results. 

5th.  Acquaintance  with  the  word  and  character 
and  plans  of  God. 

The  grand  fact  of  the  universe  absorbing  all 
others  in  its  vast  dimensions,  is  this  :  God  is.  Any 
and  all  finite  creatures,  however  numerous  or  mighty, 


110        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

and  all  their  affairs  are  but  mere  motes  appearing 
in  the  universal  blaze  of  his  being,  and  made  visi- 
ble by  it.     Every  thing  pertaining  to  him,  or  his 
ways,  is  immediately  aggrandized  by  the  connec- 
tion.    The  Bible,  as  his  word,  is  rightly  denominat- 
ed in  its  very  title,  The  Book.     No  other  on  earth 
has  such  heights  in  it  to  climb,  none  such  depths  to 
sound.     No  book  has  such  power  in  it  to  educate 
the  intellect  for  force  of  logic,  beauty  of  concep- 
tion, breadth  of  view,  tone  of  feeling  or  sweep  of 
thought ;  for  it  is  God's  book.     It  is  the  great  enig- 
ma of  our  educational  system,   devised  as  it  has 
been  by  Christian  men,  that  this  sacred  volume  not 
only  does  not  occupy  a  conspicuous  central  place  in 
it,  but  not  even  for  educational  purposes  any  place 
at  all.     The  Mohammedan  bases  his  whole  system 
of  full  long  school-instruction  on  the  Koran,    the 
Hindu  upon  the  Vedas,  and  the  Papist  on  the  in- 
terpretations and  traditions  and  perversions  of  the 
fathers  ;  but  we  who  alone  have  the  glorious  word 
of  the  great  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  instead  of 
bearing  it  with  joy  and  triumph  into  the  recitation- 
and  lecture-rooms  of  our  high,  schools  and  universi- 
ties, keep  it  well  bound  and  gilded  as  a  cabinet  cu- 
riosity in  our  houses  or  our  hearts.     But  the  Bible 
is  yet  to  have  free  course  'and  to  be  glorified,  in  oar 
colleges  and  academies,  as  in  all  the  world  beside. 
Its  history  and  literature  should  be  studied  and 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  Ill 

made  familiar,  by  the  educated  youth  of  our  land. 
Its  geography  and  antiquities  should  be  mapped  out 
clearly  in  their  thoughts,  as  are  the  marvels  of  for- 
eign countries  in  the  memory  of  travellers  who  have 
visited  them.  Its  great  men  and  their  great  deeds, 
its  many  poets,  orators,  prophets,  apostles,  and  he- 
roes should  ever  people  their  imaginations,  as  an 
army  of  light,  moving  with  the  Lord's  banners  over 
the  highway  of  the  past  to  the  land  that  is  above. 
It  should  be  made  the  book  of  life  to  them,  by 
making  its  truths  a  living  fire  on  the  altar  of  their 
hearts.  The  character  of  Grod  as  our  Father  :  his 
intimate  presence  in  fact  and  at  heart  with  us  ;  and 
his  high  governorship  over  all  our  thoughts  and 
ways  ;  and  all  the  fulness  of  his  many  great  and 
loving  re'ations  to  us,  should  be  joyously  and  flam- 
ingly  held  up  as  a  torch  of  sacred  light  before  the 
young,  in  all  our  courses  of  education.  In  his  per- 
sonal, watchful,  ever-brooding  care  for  each  one  of 
the  race  is  contained  the  whole  mystery  of  life,  as  a 
matter  of  his  ordination,  as  well  as  the  whole  doc- 
trine of  its  work  and  worth  to  us.  His  plans  in  be- 
half of  man,  or  the  great  scheme  of  redemption 
which  contains  them  all,  should  ever  stand  clear 
and  high  like  a  pyramid  of  light,  before  their 
thoughts.  It  is  because  of  his  designs  of  mercy, 
that  the  world  stands  at  all,  and  that  the  genera- 
tions of  men  come  and  go  one  after  another  upon 


112       THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

its  surface.  And  ought  a  young  man  to  be  so  edu- 
cated in  a  Christian  college  or  school,  as  to  know 
and  think  a  great  deal  more  about  the  Acropolis  at 
Athens,  or  the  temple  of  the  Parthenon  upon  its 
brow,  or  the  statue  of  the  goddess  within,  and  even 
its  ornaments  of  gold  and  ivory  and  the  sacred  pep- 
lum  upon  its  limbs,  than  about  the  very  object  and 
end  of  his  own  formation,  and  of  that  of  the  world 
itself?  No  muse,  or  grace,  or  nymph,  could  so 
adorn  a  Grecian  grove,  fountain  or  poem,  as  the 
genius  of  religion  will  beautify  any  fireside,  school 
or  heart,  in  which  it  is  invited  to  make  its  abode. 

Our  attention  has  been  confined  thus  far  to  the 
department  of  education  called  intelligence,  and  the 
elements  immediately  connected  with  it,  because  for 
space  and  time  it  is  so  large  in  itself,  and  because 
it  is  the  foundation  of  all  the  rest,  as  containing  the 
facts  on  which  and  with  which  our  minds  are  to 
act. 

The  next*point  to  be  gained  in  the  plan  of  the 
higher  education,  beside  the  right  kind  and  amount 
of  intelligence,  is, 

II.  Aspiration. 

Man  is  placed  at  the  outset  at  the  bottom  of 
the  scale  of  intelligence  and  development,  and 
taught  to  look  ever  upwards.  Voices  from  above 
are  perpetually  calling  in  love  to  him,  Come  up 


HIGHER   CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  113 

higher  !  Every  thing  that  can  be  done  to  inspire 
the  soul  to  desire  and  strife  and  hope  for  what  is 
beyond,  is  among  the  selectest  bestowrnents  of  either 
heaven  or  earth.  No  part  of  the  work  of  a  true 
education  is  more  .neglected  than  this.  When  once 
the  mind  becomes  fully  awake  to  the  consciousness 
of  itself,  and  has  a  true  sense  of  what  God  is  and 
what  life  is  under  him,  and  for  him  ;  when  it  feels 
the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  breathing  like  a 
wind  from  Heaven  upon  all  its  being,  and  it  sets  all 
its  faculties  astir  to  fulfil  its  whole  destiny,  what 
loftiness  of  purpose  !  what  strength  of  zeal  !  what 
energy  and  constancy  of  action  will  it  evince  in  its 
high  calling  !  No  man  has  any  credentials  from 
God  for  assuming  the  great  work  of  a  teacher,  who 
is  not  himself  full  of  the  new  wine  of  love  for  his 
work.  His  mind  whether  resting  or  moving  any 
where  must  be  so  occupied  with  great  thoughts  at 
all  times,  as  to  be  surrounded  perpetually  with  a 
contagious  aura  of  vitalizing  influences,  into  which 
whoever  comes  will  find  his  nature  kindling  at  once 
into  a  blaze.  And  no  one  has  really  obtained  a  true 
education,  who  does  not  wear  "  zeal "  for  all  high 
and  good  things,  "  as  a  cloak/'  This  is  the  very 
meaning  of  the  word  industry  which,  like  the  words 
endue  and  endow,  comes  from  the  Latin  induo,  to 
put  on  or  wear.  It  must  be  as  much  a  part  of  the 


114        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

man  in  all  his  public  life,  as  his  very  garments,  seen 
by  all  men  wherever  he  is  seen. 

Another  great  end  to  be  secured  is, 

III.  -Not  only  the  power  but  the  habit  also  of 
constant,  full,  disciplined  application  of  all  one's 
energies,  in  right  directions. 

Information  and  aspiration  are  valuable  ends  to 
be  secured,  only  as  they  shall  become  helps  and 
means  to  the  true  work  of  life  and  the  right  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  itself  in  conducting  it.  As  a 
fountain  is  constructed  to  receive  the  streams  minis- 
tered unto  it,  only  to  bestow  them  copiously  upon 
those  who  need  ;  so  the  mind  is  made  capable  of 
receiving,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  giving.  Work 
is  the  law  of  life  to  all  intelligent  beings,  from  God 
to  the  lowest  creature  made  in  his  image.  "  My 
Father  worketh  hitherto,"  saith  Christ,  "  and  I 
work."  And  our  work,  like  that  of  God,  must  be 
for  others.  "  No  man  liveth  to  himself ;  and  no 
man  dieth  to  himself."  Each  man  is  appointed  of 
God,  in  his  very  constitution,  to  be  a  light-bearer  to 
the  world.  Different  indeed  are  the  forms  and 
'degrees  of  light,  that  we  are  made  capable  of  bear- 
ing ;  but  yet  our  work  is,  for  each  and  all  of  us, 
everywhere  the  same,  to  "  shine,  that  others  may 
see  our  good  works  :"  luminous  with  the  inward 
light  of  a  true  noble  character,  and  with  the  outward 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  115 

glow  of  God's  manifest  smile  upon  us  and  presence 
with  us.  Do  men  need  discipline,  drill  and  appli- 
cation, earnest  and  true,  in  order  to  accomplish 
ordinary  useful  ends,  in  social  development  and 
enterprise  ;  and  how  much  more,  in  the  matter  of 
distributing  best  to  the  world  the  divine  resources  of 
their  own  immortal  natures,  over  the  wide  area  of 
all  their  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  activity,  in 
behalf  of  their  own  age  and  of  all  succeeding  ages. 
Men  are  made  by  their  Maker  to  excel  in  different 
kinds  and  degrees  of  work.  What  work  any  one 
can  perform,  and  therefore  was  made  to  perform, 
and  in  what  style  of  thoroughness  and  finish,  can 
never  be  known,  except  by  the  fullest  possible 
preparation  of  his  powers  for  working,  the  most 
vigorous  outlay  of  them  when  employed,  and  the 
steady  holding  of  the  highest  of  all  possible  objects 
of  desire  and  effort  before  the  mind  in  their  employ- 
ment ;  together  with  that  earnest,  importunate 
looking  of  the  soul  to  God  in  faith  for  his  blessing 
upon  every  effort,  which  secures  the  addition  of  his 
strength  to  our  own,  in  our  enterprises. 

IV.  Full  power  of  communicating  the  treasures 
of  light  and  love  possessed,  unto  others. 

The  real  end  of  all  true  education  is  objective, 
is  benevolence  :  the  distribution  of  thought  and 
truth  to  those  that  have  them  not,  and  the  outlay 


116       THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

of  one's  self  for  the  world's  good  in  every  form  of 
action,  in  a  more  intelligent,  effective  and  beneficial 
manner,  than  otherwise.  A  miserly  spirit  of  self- 
appropriation  here,  which  is  universally  pronounced 
miserable  in  the  very  sense  of  the  word  miserly  itself, 
is  more  base  than  in  the  use  of  money  ;  as  light  and 
knowledge  are  of  so  much  higher  value,  and  their 
bestowment  is  so  much  richer  in  its  results. 

Men  once  ruled  others  by  the  club,  the  sceptre, 
or  the  sword  ;  and  emblems  of  such  a  sort  are  still 
placed  everywhere  in  the  hands  of  titled  nobles  and 
magistrates  ;  but  the  rulers  of  the  world  now,  where 
thinking  men  are  found,  are  those  who  wield  that 
little  but  mighty  instrument,  the  pen  ;  and  these 
are  they  whose  hearts  and  tongues  are  most  vitalized 
with  truth  and  thought  and  love.  Living  hearts, 
living  tongues,  and  living  pens  :  these  are  the 
modern  names  for  the  weapons  of  which  Paul  spoke, 
when  he  said  "  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are 
mighty."  Mighty  indeed  in  all  ages  and  places  is 
the  truth  spoken  in  love  :  the  mightiest  power  on 
earth,  next  to  the  Spirit  of  G-od  himself,  whose  word 
it  is. 

Speech  is  the  noblest  vehicle  of  human  thought 
and  feeling,  and  not  of  human  only,  but  also  of 
divine.  "  The  tongue  is  a  little  member,  but 
boasteth  great  things."  Well  did  the  great  generals 
of  antiquity  know,  that  the  swords  that  flashed  with 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION. 

thought  struck  sharpest  and  deepest,  and  remained 
unbroken  longest  ;  and  therefore  relied  quite  as 
much,  on  what  words  could  do  beforehand  to  put  a 
living  spirit  within  the  implements  of  battle,  as  on 
what  the  arm  could  do  at  the  time,  in  wielding 
them.  He  who  remembers  what  the  two  great 
leaders  of  the  Church,  in  the  two  chief  epochs  of  its 
history,  were,  and  how  they  executed  their  work : 
Moses  in  the  Jewish  world  and  Paul  in  the  Chris- 
tian ;  and  so  he  who  comprehends  what  such  men 
as  Demosthenes  and  Socrates  and  Cicero  did,  each 
in  their  own  land  and  age,  and  how  they  did  it ;  or 
in  more  modern  times  what  Luther  and  Calvin,  and 
hundreds  like  them  who  have  battled  for  truth  and 
freedom  and  God,  aimed  to  accomplish  and  in  what 
way  ;  such  an  one  will  see  and  feel  that  simple, 
earnest,  loving  speech  from  one  overflowing  human 
heart  to  another  is  the  most  powerful  instrumen- 
tality that  man  ever  uses  upon  his  fellow-men. 
The  great  Saviour  himself  when  upon  earth  sought 
to  do  little  else,  because  that  alone  was  so  much, 
than  to  stand  up  and  speak  meekly  and  yet  power- 
fully of  God  and  truth  and  heaven  and  the  soul,  to 
all  men  wherever  he  could  find  them,  in  public  or 
in  private. 

System,  mechanism,  organization  and  contri- 
vances of  all  sorts,  and  every  kind  of  policy,  outward 
and  inward,  he  left  to  others  and  relied  on  the 


118        THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

simple,  living  contact  of  his  own  loving  heart  in 
open,  constant  converse  with  the  hearts  of  others. 
The  commission,  Go  !  preach  my  gospel  !  is  the 
only  order  given  to  his  followers,  for  the  mode  of 
spreading  the  knowledge  of  his  name  ;  and  in  all 
ages  it  has  pleased  God,  by  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  those  that  believe. 

Who  then  can  over-estimate  the  value  in  our 
courses  of  education,  of  thorough  attention  to  the 
cultivation  of  high  and  true  forms  of  expressing 
thought,  or  rather  of  communicating  one's  whole 
self  unto  others  for  their  good.  When  all  the  other 
advantages  of  a  true  education  are  obtained,  then 
the  results  of  thorough  training  in  composition  and 
declamation,  so  as  to  secure  the  power  of  uttering 
one's  thoughts  in  the  most  vigorous,  earnest,  tender, 
moving  manner  possible,  must  be  superadded  to 
complete  the  finished  man. 

This  part  of  a  full  style  of  high  and  true  educa- 
tion for  the  real  work  of  life,  among  those  who  are 
by  their  education  to  become  the  leaders  of  society, 
is  greatly  underrated,  in  nearly  or  quite  all  of  our 
Colleges.  How  little  is  actually  required  of  each 
one,  throughout  his  entire  course  in  this  direction  ! 
How  often  is  left  to  the  student's  own  immature 
valuation,  the  question  of  the  loss  or  gain  to  him  of 
one  of  the  most  essential  of  all  modes  of  preparation 
for  active  life  ! 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN 

And  what  gifts  are  squandered 
and  what  high  faculties  for  impressing 
great  truths  and  influences,  remain  voluntarily  al- 
though unconsciously  dormant  ;  faculties  which 
rightly  employed  might  set  the  hearts  of  multitudes 
ablaze  with  divine  truths  for  ever  ! 

V.  Artistic  execution. 

God  is  a  perfect  artist  in  all  his  work.  What- 
ever he  looks  upon,  when  finished  by  his  own  hands, 
he  always  sees  to  be  very  good  ;  and  this  pleasurable 
survey  of  all  his  works  is  no  small  part  of  his  bound- 
less joy.  The  more  nearly,  at  whatever  distance, 
any  mind  approaches  his  in  style  of  character,  the 
deeper,  fuller,  richer,  sweeter  is  its  sense  of  beauty, 
and  its  capability  not  only  of  enjoying  but  also  of 
executing  it.  The  highest  of  all  forms  of  art,  in 
respect  to  the  grandeur  and  variety  of  its  subjects, 
the  diversity  of  its  uses,  the  number  of  its  benefici- 
aries and  the  splendor  of  its  results,  is  the  art  of 
composition  :  or  the  art  of  making,  arranging  and 
expressing  thought,  in  a  manner  that  shall  best 
answer  the  true  end  to  be  attained.  Here  not  only 
do  all  previous  knowledge  and  training  and  study 
find  their  appropriate  outlet,  showing  perpetually 
both  their  fulness  and  their  quality  ;  but  also  in  no 
way  can  one  so  perfect  himself  in  exactness  and 
power  and  beauty  of  thought,  for  the  growth  of  his 


120       THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

own  mind  or  the  increase  of  his  usefulness,  as  by  the 
careful  and  continual  practice  of  the  art  of  compo- 
sition, upon  great  themes  and  for  high  ends.  And 
while  art  in  general  should  be  greatly  magnified  as 
such,  in  all  our  higher  courses  of  instruction,  this 
one  art  itself  should  be  specially  taught  in  all  the 
departments  of  criticism,  taste,  and  style,  through- 
out the  whole  breadth  of  their  historical,  logical, 
and  rhetorical  characteristics.  As  the  utterance  of 
language  reacts  upon  the  very  processes  of  thought 
themselves,  establishing  and  enlarging  them,  so 
composition,  which  is  not  only  the  studious  elabora- 
tion of  the  outward  expression  at  which  point  so 
many  stop  in  all  their  conceptions  of  it,  but  also  of 
all  its  inward  contents,  serves  wonderfully  to  heighten 
and  perfect  the  native  vigor  of  the  mind. 

Thirdly.     In  reference  to  the  heart. 

The  habit  which  so  many  have  in  the  work  of 
education,  of  systematically  dealing  only  with  the 
intellect,  or  rather  of  confining  their  attention  and 
labor  to  even  the  most  narrow  part  of  its  vast 
dimensions,  is  morally  abnormal  and  absurd.  A 
man  is  what  his  heart  is.  His  faith  and  hopes  and 
purposes  :  these  are  himself,  both  the  foundation 
and  the  superstructure  of  his  entire  personality.  All 
education  in  heaven  begins  and  ends  with  the  heart  ; 
and  so  must  it  on  earth  in  the  family  and  the 
school,  ere  God's  will  shall  be  done  here  as  it  is 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  121 

above,  or  man  be  educated  as  he  designed  in  making 
the  strange  and  varied  organism  of  his  capabilities, 
that  he  should  be.  The  most  impressible  of  all 
things  in  this  world  to  outward  influence  and  culture^ 
is  man  himself.  The  air  and  sea,  which  are  per- 
petually in  such  a  state  of  flux,  are  relatively  im- 
mobile as  if  made  of  iron  or  marble,  compared  with 
the  intensely  vital  instincts  and  impulses  of  his 
nature.  By  insensible  imitation  almost,  he  will 
become  what  men  and  things  around  him  claim, 
invite,  or  even  suggest  that  he  should  become.  The 
power  of  a  right  example,  clothing  as  in  a  garment 
of  light  all  true  principles,  and  of  a  heart  set  on  fire 
of  heaven  and  earnestly  at  work  by  design  to  spread 
the  sacred  flame  among  others,  is  morally  irresistible 
by  the  young,  whose  nature  has  been  everywhere 
purposely  thrown  wide  open  by  its  Maker  to  all 
right  influences  from  without. 

In  the  character  of  its  educated  men,  society 
has  the  greatest  possible  interest.  The  more 
mighty  for  good  is  an  engine,  when  properly  used, 
the  more  terrible  for  evil  is  it  when  perverted. 
The  same  education,  wielded  as  an  instrument  of 
great  efficiency  by  a  heart  deeply  in  love  with  God 
and  man,  or  by  one  of  only  narrow,  selfish  aims  and 
purposes,  will  be  potent  to  produce  an  earth-wide 
difference  of  results.  How  in  working  iron  or  steel 
or  harnessing  any  of  the  forces  of  nature,  must  they 
6 


122       THE  TRUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

be  tempered  and  gauged,  and  harmonized  at  the 
outset,  according  to  the  character  of  their  future 
uses  !  But  how  much  more  necessary  to  the  proper 
and  required  issue,  is  that  great  neglected  and  even 
forgotten  work,  in  all  true  education,  of  tempering 
the  heart  aright  and  adjusting  all  its  inner  forces 
to  the  appointed  work  of  life.  From  either  a  per- 
verted, paralyzing  sense  of  the  greatness  of  man's 
natural  propension  to  evil,  or  a  self-excusing  un- 
willingness to  assume  and  maintain  at  all  times  an 
energetic  spirit  of  duty  and  effort,  most  who  enter 
upon  the  holy  office  of  instructing  and  forming 
other  minds,  neither  bestow  any  earnest,  connected 
labor,  nor  seem  to  know  that  they  ought,  upon  the 
divine  work  of  rightly  moulding  and  beautifying 
their  characters. 

The  great  points  to  be  gained  by  the  true  edu- 
cator, in  the  character  of  all  who  drink  inspiration 
from  his  heart  and  life,  are  such  as  these  :  elevation 
of  thought,  refinement,  delicacy  and  tenderness  of 
feeling,  self-forgetfulness  of  aim,  energy  of  purpose, 
and  all  pure,  bright,  joyous  religiousness  of  spirit. 
Many  are  the  forms  in  which  these  may  be  skilfully 
and  sedulously  cultivated  ;  and  many  the  oppor- 
tunities, in  which  they  may  be  employed  by  the 
teacher,  who  is  himself  their  possessor.  He  who 
diligently  seeks  them  as  the  treasures  of  his  own 
character,  will  by  the  natural  fire  and  heat  of  his 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  123 

heart,  its  spontaneous,  ever  outspoken  fulness  of 
desire,  overflowing  at  all  times  into  every  kind  and 
degree  of  expression,  perpetually  teach  and  invite 
and  allure  his  pupils,  to  enter  with  him  into  the 
same  "pleasant  paths  of  wisdom."  Such  an  one 
will  not  need  in  order  to  meet  in  a  formal  way  the 
sense  of  duty,  to  hold  up  with  mock  earnestness  the 
dry  forms  of  didactic  precepts,  as  if  to  discharge  his 
obligations  with  a  will.  Men  are  as  little  moved  to 
action  by  skeletons  of  doctrine,  as  would  be  an 
army,  or  an  audience  by  the  skeleton  of  .a  general 
or  of  an  orator,  instead  of  the  living,  breathing  man 
of  their  hearts  himself. 

Any  education  which  is  not  thoroughly  and 
delightfully  religious,  in  its  whole  inward  spirit  and 
outward  aim,  is  not  only  false,  but  abominable. 
False  preaching  and  false  teaching  are  the  two 
great  masterpieces  of  Satan's  art,  in  his  work  of 
ruin.  Man  was  made  wholly  for  God  ;  to  reach 
out  towards  him  as  a  child  to  its  parent,  to  run 
lovingly  in  his  footsteps,  and  to  abide  in  festive 
union  of  heart  with  him  forever.  For  if  any  man, 
saith  Christ,  hear  my  voice  and  open  the"  door,  I 
will  come  in  to  him  and  sup  with  him  and  he  with 
me.  To  call,  therefore,  such  treacherous  treatment 
of  a  youth  as  terminates  not  merely  in  his  being 
indifferent  to  Him,  but  even  in  his  not  knowing 
him  at  all,  education,  what  barbarity  is  it  not 


124       THE  TKUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

only  of  language  but  also  of  sentiment  !  And  so, 
also,  not  to  see  and  to  feel,  in  undertaking  to  fash- 
ion the  future  of  the  pupil,  the  fact  of  his  immor- 
tality ;  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  his  great  soul, 
with  no  sense  either  of  its  greatness  or  even  of  its 
presence,  and  much  more  to  sow  daily  the  seeds  of 
eternal  joy  or  sorrow  in  it,  and  not  be  awed  by  any 
just  conception  of  the  solemn  grandeur  of  such  a 
work  ;  what  is  such  ignoble  conduct  but  absolute 
contempt  of  both  the  present  and  the  future,  of 
time  and  eternity,  of  man  and  of  God  !  Christ, 
not  a  dead  Christ  such  as  papists  hang  up  as  a 
curiosity  in  those  great  mausoleums  of  souls  called 
cathedrals,  or  such  as  hearts  unacquainted  with  his 
presence  may  yet  describe  with  all  the  glow  of 
poetic  inspiration  ;  but  the  living,  reigning  Christ  of 
heaven  and  earth,  living  and  reigning  in  every  hu- 
man heart  that  opens  its  everlasting  gates  to  this 
king  of  glory,  should  be  cherished  universally  by  the 
wise  men  of  the  West,  as,  when  a  babe,  the  wise 
men  of  the  East  brought  unto  him  gifts  and  gold 
and  frankincense  and  myrrh.  The  odor  of  his  gar- 
ments, which  smell  of  cassia  out  of  the  ivory  palaces 
above,  should  be  in  the  halls  and  corridors  of  all 
our  schools  and  colleges ;  and  every  teacher  in  them 
should  delight  to  bathe  his  feet  with  tears  and  to 
break  all  precious  ointment  upon  his  head.  In 
every  form  and  degree  of  human  culture,  Christ  is 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  125 

the  Model ;  and  constant,  earnest,  joyful  labor :  the 
more  joyful  the  more  directly  it  is  laid  out  in  his 
name  :  is  the  rule  of  service  for  him  and  to  him ; 
while  prayer  and  praise  will  ever  prove  themselves 
to  be  to  all  who  try  their  power,  the  very  wings  of 
successful  toil. 

The  power  of  Christianity  is  in  its  principles, 
and  not  at  all  in  its  outward  conditions ;  and, 
therefore,  the  apostle  knew  Christ  after  his  depart- 
ure, no  more  in  the  flesh.  The  power,  also,  of  any 
human  life  or  character  lies  in  the  fact  and  the 
degree  of  its  conformity  to  those  principles.  The 
secret  of  Christ's  influence,  as  a  teacher,  upon  the 
men  of  his  own  age  who  did  not  know  him  as  we 
do,  lay  in  the  truths  that  he  uttered  with  his 
tongue  and  represented  in  his  life  ;  and  similar  re- 
sults have  never  failed  and  can  never  fail  to  reap- 
pear, in  the  history  of  any  one  whose  heart  is  all 
aglow  with  the  same  fire  from  heaven. 

All  systems  of* education  that  are  not  vitally 
Christian  are  doomed,  like  all  perverted  forms  of 
government,  science,  literature  and  religion,  in 
their  essential  constitution  to  perish  ;  and  as  in 
these  other  departments  of  social  life,  since  the  Ref- 
ormation, false  ideas,  many  of  them  once  of  giant 
height  and  strength,  have  been  melting  away  in 
rapid  succession,  so  that  infidel  poetry,  philosophy, 
and  letters  have  entirely  lost  the  deceitful  glitter 


126       THE  TKUE  MEASURE  OF  THE 

that  they  once  possessed  ;  so  all  ungodly  principles 
of  education  are,  in  the  end,  to  be  still  more  clam- 
orously rejected  and  abhorred.  Man,  universal  man, 
is  yet  to  come  into  full,  deep,  warm  sympathy  with 
God,  in  his  estimate  of  the  glory  of  our  nature 
made  in  his  own  image,  and,  therefore,  of  the  high 
responsibility  of  him  who  undertakes  to  lead  it 
forth,  upon  the  pathway  of  its  true  development. 

The  earnest  use  of  positive  religious  influence 
in  the  work  of  education,  is  neglected  by  many,  on 
theory  or  by  blind  impulse,  who  yet  profess  to 
acknowledge  its  amazing  value  ;  by  some,  from  a 
foolish  fear  of  being  regarded  as  hyper-denomina- 
tional ;  by  others,  from  a  blind  sense  of  the  fact, 
that  in  the  economy  of  modern  society  the  office  of 
religious  instruction  is  assigned,  in  its  general 
division  of  labor,  to  the  ministry  as  their  special 
work ;  and  by  others  still,  from  the  feeling,  that 
the  art  of  right  religious  stimulation  and  guidance 
is  one,  in  which  they  hardly  know  where  to  step  or 
where  to  stand.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  greatest 
of  all  arts,  as  also  of  all  modes  of  usefulness,  to 
know  how  to  bring  completely  one's  whole  person- 
ality into  bright  and  burning  contact  at  all  points, 
with  the  natures  and  wants  of  others.  The  right 
use  of  religious  power  over"  them  is  not,  however,  to 
be  of  a  formal  and  fixed  character,  or  occasional  in 
its  seasons  ;  but,  spontaneous,  perpetual,  and  ever- 


HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION.  12*7 

varied,  according  to  the  everchanging  aspects  of 
nature  and  of  life  and  of  each,  soul,  that  gives  or 
receives  the  blessing  of  communicated  love. 

The  teacher,  if  possessed  of  intellectual  and. 
genial  personal  qualities  alike  and  fully  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  God,  can  do  a  work  which,  if  neglected, 
the  ministry  with  whatever  weaponry  of  truth  and 
love  may  ever  afterwards  attempt  in  vain.  The 
recipients  of  his  influence  are  exceedingly  impressi- 
ble, and  as  never  again  in  subsequent  years.  He 
not  only  teaches  but  trains  them,  if  faithful,  to 
walk  in  the  paths  of  uprightness.  And,  yet,  his  is 
the  calling  so  noble  and  divine,  which  is  commonly 
so  lightly  esteemed,  and  whose  honor,  most  who 
undertake  its  vindication  would  determine  by  some 
of  its  higher  positions  so  called,  instead  of  by  its 
own  great  intrinsic  merit,  as  a  vocation  :  as  high  in 
itself,  as  any  mortal  can  presume  to  enter  uncalled, 
or  feel  that  he  has  received  a  commission  from 
above  to  undertake. 


III. 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHER. 


III. 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHER. 

THERE  is  no  relation  in  which  God  stands  more 
conspicuously  and  constantly  before  His  intelligent 
creatures,  than  that  of  a  teacher  :  ever  showing  him- 
self to  them,  as  the  Infinite  Counterpart  of  their 
being,  in  respect  to  all  its  capacities  and  all  its 
wants  ;  and  summoning  purposely,  by  every  pos- 
sible variety  of  object  appeal  and  influence,  in  his 
works  and  word,  every  faculty  of  their  natures  into 
full  exercise.  The  highest  also  of  all  Christ's  offices 
when  on  earth,  except  in  the  very  article  of  death 
as  man's  atonement,  which  expresses  indeed  his 
dearest  relationship  to  man,  was  that  of  our  great 
Teacher.  And  so  fully  is  the  whole  universe,  which 
is  everywhere  pervaded  with  God's  being,  pervaded 
also,  almost  equally,  with  His  sense  of  the  value  of 
the  high  work  of  education,  that  all  the  forms  of 
matter  around  us  are  astir  with  mute  eloquence, 
"  utteriDg  speech"  of  Him.  Voices  of  the  day  and 
night  are  ever  crying  to  each  listening  ear  :  God  is 


132  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN   TEACHER. 

good  and  man  is  great  :  each  hour  is  precious  and 
the  future  is  unending  !  It  is  a  holy  office  indeed  to 
teach.  To  guide  a  weary  traveller  through  the 
pathless  woods  ;  to  conduct  an  invalid  to  the  foun- 
tain of  perpetual  health  ;  to  restore  a  lost  child  to 
its  parent's  arms  ;  and  much  more  to  plant  the  feet 
of  some  poor  wanderer  from  his  God  in  the  path- 
ways of  virtue  again  :  is  there  any  class  of  deeds,  to 
which  the  universal  heart  of  Humanity  more  in- 
stinctively and  sympathetically  responds  as  nohle  ? 
And  yet  these  are  but  separate,  occasional  symbols 
of  the  higher  service  of  the  teacher,  who  is  ever  sys- 
tematically, artistically,  patiently  and  prayerfully 
at  work,  to  lead  each  pupil  upon  the  highway  of 
glory  and  honor  and  immortality  for  himself ;  and  to 
prepare  him  also  in  the  best  manner,  in  spirit  and 
power,  to  lead  as  many  others  as  possible  in  his 
train.  In  tender  watchfulness  and  care,  he  combines 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  plans,  all  the  devotion  of  a 
gardener  to  a  favorite  plant,  of  a  nurse  to  a  sick 
friend,  of  a  physician  to  a  cherished  patient,  and 
even  of  a  parent  to  a  loved  child,  with  the  study 
and  taste  and  delicate  execution  of  an  accomplished 
artist,  rejoicing  in  his  art. 

But  consider  more  minutely, 

I.  His  spirit. 

II.  His  labors. 


THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  133 

I.  And  what  of  his  spirit  ?  Much  in  every 
way. 

1st.  He  loves  his  work. 

Others  may  move,  as  so  many  do,  discontentedly 
through  their  daily  duties  and  experiences  ;  as,  in 
the  days  of  Horace,  "  Said  the  soldier,  oh  the  fortu- 
nate merchants;  and  the  lawyer  praised  the  farmer; 
and  the  farmer  cried  out  that  they  only  were  happy 
who  lived  in  the  city."  But  he,  as  each  new  morn- 
ing opens  its  golden  gates  before  him  for  action  and 
enjoyment,  comes  forth  from  the  chamber  of  his 
repose  to  his  loved  work,  like  a  strong  man  rejoicing 
to  run  a  race.  How  can  one,  on  whose  neck  his 
daily  employment,  and  with  it  his  daily  existence, 
hangs  as  an  unwilling  weight,  stand  up  worthily  in 
his  appointed  lot !  Both  God  and  man  love  cheer- 
ful givers  and  cheerful  workers.  The  true  teacher, 
like  the  true  poet  or  preacher,  who  cannot  but  speak 
the  things  that  he  has  seen  and  heard  from  above, 
teaches  because  he  must.  Woe  is  unto  him  if  he 
teaches  not,  as  said  the  apostle,  woe  was  unto  him 
if  he  preached  not  the  gospel.  Although  many 
wonder  what  charms  he  can  find  in  what  they  deem 
so  laborious  and  thankless  an  employment,  all  its 
heights  are  to  him  of  Alpine  grandeur  ;  and  all  its 
breadths  of  ocean-width.  His  very  estimate  of  the 
exceeding  glory  of  his  calling,  is  itself  his  special 
anointing  for  it  from  on  high  :  the  fire  that  is  in 


134  THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

Ms  heart,  has  been  kindled  by  a  hand  divine.  He 
not  only  sees  a  vastness  of  dimensions  which  others 
do  not  comprehend,  in  the  sphere  of  happy  toil  to 
which  G-od  has  beckoned  him,  but  also  an  infinite 
fulness  of  details,  ever  inviting  his  attention  and 
pleasure,  which  their  feeble  vision  cannot  traverse. 
They  having  eyes  see  not,  and  having  ears  hear 
not,  the  things  which  rivet  and  ravish  his  thoughts. 
As  with  all  men  sent  of  God  on  a  special  errand  to 
the  world,  his  impulse  to  action  in  his  chosen  work 
is  not  that  of  a  cool  determination,  to  make  in  his 
life  as  it  were  a  geometrical  demonstration  of  some 
theorem  of  duty  ;  but  a  spontaneous,  native,  ever- 
glowing  force,  divine  alike  in  its  origin  and  in  its 
aim.  Not  more  naturally,  by  the  very  necessities 
of  its  own  germinal  outgrowth,  does  a  plant  hold 
brightly  up  to  view,  on  the  very  summit  of  its 
strength,  its  appointed  flower  where  all  its  forces  of 
life  and  color  and  fragrance  are  concentrated  ;  or  a 
bird  carol  by  the  sweet  compulsion  of  its  nature  in 
a  tree  the  song  which  has  been  given  to  it  to  sing, 
than  his  soul  delights  in  all  its  joyousness  to  empty 
its  riches  bountifully,  as  if  by  the  force  of  a  heavenly 
instinct,  into  the  hearts  of  others.  The  proper 
governors,  and  leaders  and  great  men  of  the  world 
are  made  by  the  same  great  Being,  who  made  the 
mountains  and  the  seas  ;  and  who  certainly  would 
be  quite  as  apt  to  provide  society  with  an  abun- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  135 

dance  of  its  higher  resources  and  endowments,  as  to 
furnish,  as  He  everywhere  has  done,  any  of  its  sep- 
arate and  subordinate  elements  and  appliances  in 
such  a  way ;  which  yet  themselves  exist  only  for  its 
sake.  Happy  is  that  community  which  knows  how 
to  find  and  to  use  the  leaders,  prepared  for  it  of 
God.  They  carry  all  their  ensigns  of  nobility  within 
them  and  not  upon  them,  for  mere  outward  show. 
Yea  !  happy  is  that  community  which  does  not,  by 
artificial  restraints,  repress  their  native  conscious- 
ness of  their  true  position  in  their  age  or  lead  them 
away  by  false  lures  from  their  designated  work  of 
high  and  holy  leadership  to  their  generation.  In 
the  day  when  kings  shall  be  nursing  fathers  and 
queens  nursing  mothers  to  the  church,  kingly  minds 
and  queenly  hearts  :  what  an  universal  outburst  of 
mental  and  moral  vitality  will  then  be  seen  over 
the  face  of  the  whole  world  !  and  how  will  the  kin- 
dred offices  of  the  parent  and  the  teacher  appear, 
like  two  pillars  of  light  rising  from  earth  to  heaven 
and  connecting  them  forever,  as  with  bands  of 
beauty,  to  each  other  !  So  thinks  the  true  Chris- 
tian teacher  of  his  calling.  He  loves  it :  he  rejoices 
in  it :  it  is  his  very  meat  and  drink,  to  do  his 
Father's  will  in  this  high  form  of  holy  enterprise 
for  Him. 

The  relation  in  which  the  teacher  stands  to  his 
pupil,  is  in  some  respects  higher  even  than  that  of 


136  THE   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

the  parent  himself.  The  mind  of  a  youth  is,  at 
the  first,  but  a  vast  sensorium  of  impressions,  as  his 
heart  is  of  influences,  vital  in  every  part  and  always 
in  inward  motion  from  one  form  of  conception  or  per- 
ception to  another.  On  his  soul  in  its  native  open- 
ness, unperverted  by  abuse  from  himself  or  others, 
every  cloud  casts  its  shadow  ;  every  tree  shakes  its 
leaves  when  green  and  drops  them  when  dead  ;  every 
flower  breathes  its-  fragrance  ;  and  the  hills  and 
dales,  the  summer-fields  and  the  quiet  streams, 
image  themselves  in  ever  still  happy  repose.  He 
is  prepared  in  all  the  sensitive,  receptive  and  emo- 
tional elements  and  adaptations  of  his  nature,  to  be 
influenced  at  the  outset  almost  wholly,  as  if  only 
susceptible  and  passive  under  impressions  from 
without,  by  the  whole,  grand,  imposing  array  of 
things  and  beings  around  him  ;  while  yet  in  the 
end,  when  accoutred  for  the  work  with  strength 
and  experience  and  disciplined  skill,  he  is  to  react 
upon  the  surrounding  universe,  and  to  use  time  and 
space  and  opportunity  and  men  and  matter,  with 
all  its  outward  forms  and  inward  forces  and  laws  of 
gravity  and  momentum,  and  its  capacities  for  the 
composition  and  resolution  of  its  elements  and 
agencies  in  every  varied  way,  to  carve  his  own  ideas 
and  plans  upon  the  world  and  upon  mankind,  be- 
fore leaving  them. 

What  now  is  to  be  done  to  this  easily  moved 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  137 

and  mightily  moving  nature  ;  and  what  is  to  be 
done  for  it,  in  the  sublime  process  of  its  right  de- 
velopment ?  Is  the  stream  of  its  sensations  and 
impulses,  its  ideas  and  intentions,  to  flow  on  in  a 
wild  flood  of  chance  experiences  and  issues  ?  Or, 
is  impulse  to  be  put  under  the  check  of  principle  ; 
and  energy  to  be  led  into  right  directions  ;  and  dis- 
cipline to  bring  forces,  otherwise  blind  and  ruinous 
in  their  action,  into  powerful  subserviency  to  great 
ends  ?  The  intelligent  parent  trains  his  child  to, 
at  least,  apparent  obedience,  and  to  the  forms  of 
polite  intercourse  with  others  ;  and  here  usually  the 
scale  of  home-education  begins  and  ends,  although 
with  an  elect  few  it  is  held  to  be  a  high  angelic  art, 
of  many  .diversified  ends  and  appliances,  demanding 
at  all  times  thought  and  effort  and  grace,  in  their 
best  degrees  and  modes.  But,  however  high  a 
parent's  estimate  may  be  of  the  greatness  of  his 
duty  as  an  educator,  the  teacher  has  still  a  work  to 
do  which  the  parent  has  not  :  to  train  the  mind  of 
his  pupil  to  true,  full,  constant  self-productiveness, 
up  to  the  entire  strength  of  his  resources  natural 
and  acquired  ;  or  in  other  words  to  fashion  and  fix 
his  working  faculties  as  a  steward  of  God  and  a  man 
among  men,  according  to  such  tastes  and  habits, 
that  from  his  whole  active  life  as  a  thinking,  willing, 
busy  being,  there  shall  actually  come  to  mankind 


138  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

the  greatest  possible  tribute  of  service,  which  God 
has  made  him  capable  of  rendering. 

2dly.  The  true  Christian  teacher  loves  his 
pupils. 

He  loves  them  personally.  A  man  may  love  his 
employment,  as  an  anatomist  loves  surgery  ;  or  a 
painter  his  studio  ;  or  a  soldier  the  hour  of  battle  ; 
and  yet  take  no  interest  in  him  who  is  affected  by  it, 
except  as  furnishing  him  an  opportunity  of  new 
professional  labor  or  skill.  But  the  true  educator, 
not  only  feels  himself  towards  each  pupil,  but  makes 
him  also  feel  it,  that  he  is  his  personal  friend.  ^  This 
conviction  is  infallible  in  his  pupil's  mind,  and 
comes  swiftly  and  strongly  in  its  course,  because  he 
really  is  such,  and  shows  it  therefore  in  all  his  looks 
and  tones;  his  words  and  plans  and  deeds.  The 
sentiment  of  personal  consecration  to  their  good 
possesses  him,  as  an  ever-present  inspiration ;  and 
the  perpetual  manifestation  of  its  light  perpetually 
entrances  their  eyes  and  hearts. 

Love  begets  love  :  this  is  its  normal  product. 
The  love  of  the  superior  must  precede  that  of  the 
inferior,  and  call  it  into  life.  This  is  God's  mode  of 
vitalizing  the  universe  with  the  power  of  love  ;  and 
it  must  be  man's.  "  Speaking  the  truth  in  love"  : 
this  is  the  Scriptural,  the  philosophic  and  the  only 
practical  way  of  influencing  minds  in  any  right 
direction.  Truth  and  love,  if  employed  to  their 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  139 

utmost  strength,  what  results  could  they  not  ac- 
complish, in  blended  beauty  and  power,  in  the 
family  and  the  school,  the  church  and  the  state  ! 
Mighty  indeed  are  our  weapons,  tempered  and  edged 
above  for  our  work. 

The  path  of  the  true  Christian  teacher  is  that 
of  the  just  man,  shining  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day  :  ever  ascending  from  earth  to  heaven 
into  more  and  more  light  and  into  more  and  more 
joy.  Mounting  himself  with  transport,  upon  such 
a  path  of  ever  new  progress  and  expanding  vision 
and  beauteous  discovery,  he  never  ceases  to  be  eager 
that  those  who  are  behind  should  hasten  on  with 
flying  feet,  and  share  with  him  the  continual  rapture 
of  his  life.  Compared  with  such  an  one  scaling 
height  after  height  of  knowledge  and  pleasure,  and 
stopping  at  each  new  point  as  he  rises,  only  to  shout 
his  joy  with  eagerness,  to  those  who  are  toiling  on 
after  him  below  :  in  what  a  pitiable  contrast  does 
he  stand,  who,  instead  of  climbing  upwards  to  new 
attainments,  sits  quietly  down  by  the  roadside  and 
amuses  himself  and  his  pupils  with  those  cheap 
trinkets,  the  petty  prizes  of  a  school  or  college,  or 
even  of  the  larger  world  beyond  them,  as  the  chosen 
incentives  to  toil  and  aspiration.  But  how,  one  may 
well  ask,  how  can  ye  believe  or  how  can  ye  become 
great,  who  seek  honor  one  from  another.  And 
flattery  to  which  so  many  resort  as  a  substitute  for 


140  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

love,  expecting  to  accomplish  by  it  in  a  word,  what 
much,  patient,  loving  labor  only  can  achieve,  what  a 
breath  of  poison  does  it  spread  over  all  the  tender 
fibrils  of  the  heart  !  It  is  the  bane  of  all  piety, 
eloquence,  action,  poetry,  music,  art,  business  or 
personal  development  in  any  form,  to  begin  or  end 
in  selfishness.  Under  such  an  overlying  rock 
nothing  that  has  any  life  from  Heaven  in  it,  can 
grow.  Deeply  does  the  true  teacher  feel  this  great 
fact,  and  does  not  content  himself  with  working 
upon  any  perverse  or  even  merely  superficial  ele- 
ments, in  the  character  of  his  pupil.  He  breathes 
and  moves  and  acts  at  once,  only  and  for  ever,  upon 
the  deepest  and  strongest  elements  of  his  being. 

His  love  is  the  same  in  kind  as  that  which  stirs 
an  angel's  heart  and  harp  ;  for  he  is  engaged  in  the 
same  high  work,  ministering  unto  candidates  for 
immortality,  health  and  strength  and  joy.  As  his 
pupils  stand  before  him  veiled  in  mortal  flesh,  he 
beholds  them  in  their  inner  nature  rather  than  their 
outer,  unrobed  of  all  the  meannesses  of  their  tem- 
porary, earthly  state  ;  and  feels  that  his  appointed 
work,  to  lead  them  to  glory  and  to  God,  is  august 
indeed  beyond  his  vastest  conceptions. 

And  as,  in  the  review  also  of  the  means  and 
appliances  adopted  for  his  own  education,  he  sees 
and  feels  most  deeply  what  might  have  been  done 
by  higher  skill  and  finer  art  and  greater  labor  and 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN   TEACHER.  141 

warmer  love,  in  unfolding  and  beautifying  his  intel- 
lect and  heart  ;  he  carefully  and  lovingly  undertakes 
to  avoid  himself  all  the  mistakes  which  he  can  dis- 
cover, and  to  add  to  his  work  every  new  and  higher 
advantage,  which  his  own  experience  or  reflection 
can  suggest. 

With  no  such  weak  theory  to  mislead  him,  as 
that  God  has  constituted  minds  all  of  one  original 
mould  and  grade  in  power  and  brightness,  he  studies 
with  keen  relish  and  discrimination  the  peculiarities 
of  each  pupil  committed  to  his  care,  and  his  capaci- 
ties, susceptibilities,  idiosyncracies,  habits  and  all 
the  elements  of  vital  force  or  feebleness,  that  enter 
into  his  composition  :  so  that  each  one,  instead  of 
being  lost  in  any  general  aggregate,  stands  before 
his  thoughts  in  his  own,  clear,  individualized  per- 
sonality. 

3dly.  He  loves  his  Master. 

He  has  chosen  his  calling,  as  his  highest  mode 
of  serving  Christ.  Christ  set  before  the  soul  by  its 
own  choice,  as  the  great  commanding  object  of  its 
life,  will  fully,  yes  !  alone,  draw  out  all  its  hidden 
powers  and  resources  into  action.  How  often  is 
what  is  true  only  of  direct  love  to  Him,  as  the  great 
motor-force  of  one's  being,  ascribed  to  a  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice,  which  is  but  one  of  its  many  products. 
Self  is  but  the  mere  point  of  an  endless  circumfer- 
ence. Self  has  neither  breadth  nor  depth  enough 


142  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

in  it  in  any  form,  positive  or  negative,  as  an  atmos- 
phere for  our  thoughts  to  float  in.  The  highest 
form  of  unselfishness  is  absolute  self-forge tfulncss, 
in  which  state  of  heart  as  in  the  blaze  of  a  furnace, 
all  ideas  of  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice  are  immedi- 
ately consumed.  Christ,  only  Christ  :  in  this  sen- 
timent is  the  highest  vital  energy  that  can  walk  up 
and  down,  whether  in  kingly  robes  and  aspects  or 
not,  in  the  family,  the  school,  the  pulpit,  the  press, 
the  halls  of  legislation,  or  the  courts  of  justice. 

True  teaching,  like  true  living  or  true  feeling,  is 
and  must  be  religious  :  not  theoretically,  formally 
or  negatively  alone,  but  actually,  designedly  and 
earnestly.  With  what  a  train  of  sweet  influences, 
does  one  who  thus  zealously  labors  for  God,  move 
among  his  pupils  ?  Light  from  above  is  in  all  his 
features  ;  and  the  scent  as  of  a  garden  of  spices  is 
in  his  garments.  The  eyes  and  ears  of  the  young 
are  made  to  be  tenderly  and  thrillingly  touched,  by 
looks  and  tones  that  are  filled  with  the  Spirit  of 
Heaven.  He  who  bears  these  elements  of  moral 
energy  in  his  person,  because  filled  with  them  in  his 
heart,  always  finds  the  young  bending  with  sweet 
responsiveness  to  their  influence,  as  if  under  the 
magic  spell  of  some  strange  invisible  power,  con- 
straining their  thoughts  and  feelings  to  its  will. 
How  beautifully  is  childhood  conformed  in  all  its 
opennesses  to  the  selectest  social  and  religious  influ- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  143 

ences,  and  in  all  its  aptitudes  for  faith  and  love  and 
joy,  to  the  idea  that  the  highest  forces  of  the  world 
are  moral.  How  vividly,  in  this  dawning  freshness 
of  our  being,  are  the  practical  lessons  of  life  imaged 
to  our  view  !  that  this  world  is  but  the  seed-plot 
and  nursery  of  the  next  ;  that  the  family-institution 
is  normally  a  school  of  Christ ;  that  the  parent  is 
God's  representative  in  his  household,  for  truth  and 
law  and  every  thing  great  and  good  ;  and  that  the 
true  discipline  and  development  of  our  brief  earthly 
state  is  that  of  faith. 

The  true  Christian  teacher  feels  in  his  work  the 
inspiration  of  these  great  facts.  His  very  love  for 
his  Master  leads  him  to  desire  the  office  of  a  teacher 
of  minds  and  trainer  of  characters  under  him,  and 
to  value  childhood  as  the  most  inviting  of  all  fields 
of  labor  in  His  cause. 

But  consider, 

IT.  "The  labors  of  a  true  Christian  teacher. 

Labor  is  to  him  joy.  It  is  on  the  wheel  of  toil 
that  every  thing  in  this  world  moves.  Work  is  the 
very  law  of  intellectual,  as  of  agricultural,  mechani- 
cal or  commercial,  life.  The  progress  of  history,  all 
human  improvements  and  the  whole  steady  move- 
ment of  each  generation  above  the  preceding,  are  all 
but  so  many  chapters  of  the  results  of  labor.  To 
multi  tudes  toil  is  either  practically  or  theoretically  an 


144  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

abhorrence.  Next  to  serving  Him  who  perpetually 
exemplifies  the  power  and  the  pleasure  of  ceaseless 
activity  in  his  own  high  being,  as  the  great  foun- 
tain of  his  constant  enjoyment  and  beneficence  ; 
and  who  has  ordained  this  law  of  mental  and  moral 
life,  as  one  of  the  very  necessities  of  existence  over 
all  his  intelligent  creatures :  there  is  nothing  that 
mankind  dislike  so  much  to  do,  as  to  maintain  a 
life  of  laborious  industry.  There  are  many  who 
speak  and  more  who  think  of  labor  as  a  curse. 
This  is  indeed  the  common,  thoughtless  and  yet 
willing  interpretation  of  the  curse  upon  Adam  :  by 
the  sweat  of  thy  brow  thou  shalt  gain  thy  bread. 
And  in  the  same  way,  those  of  such  sluggish  natures, 
look  up  languidly  in  their  thoughts  towards 
Heaven,  as  a  place  of  inactive  rest,  as  if  God  him- 
self could  be  in  a  state  of  dull  repose,  or  as  if  any 
creature  could  be  dormant  in  the  intense  glory  of 
his  immediate  presence.  No  !  work  is  no  curse, 
except  to  him  who  curses  his  own  nature  in  think- 
ing so  :  to  a  right  mind  and  a  true  heart  it  is  per- 
petual pastime.  The  spirit  of  labor  is  one  of  man's 
highest  honors,  as  its  results  are  his  highest  rewards. 
Not  labor  was  the  curse,  but  the  direction  in  which 
it  was  appointed  :  to  obtain  the  elements  of  bodily 
subsistence,  to  extort  from  the  earth,  before  yield- 
ing its  bounty  unasked  but  now  covered  with  thorns 
and  briars,  food  and  raiment ;  and  thus  to  devote 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  145 

to  physical  things  that  attention,  which  might 
otherwise  have  been  fixed  by  man  as  by  the  angels, 
with  intense  gladness  upon  higher  employments  and 
pleasures.  Such  was  the  curse  :  to  return  to  dust 
again  and  to  spend  the  brief  interval  of  life  here  in 
the  dust,  serving  the  wants  of  that  body  in  yielding 
to  whose  cravings  our  first  parents  sinned.  And 
the  rest  of  Heaven  is  rest  from  toil  for  physical  sub- 
sistence, as  well  as  from  all  conflicts  within  and  all 
foes  from  without  :  the  rest  of  high  thought  and  of 
deep  love,  that  perfect  balancing  of  one's  whole 
being,  in  the  full  harmonious  exercise  forever  of 
every  susceptibility  and  activity  of  the  soul  towards 
the  greatest  of  all  objects,  and  in  the  best  of  all 
ways,  which  leaves  no  room  for  any  want  and  no 
sense  of  any  wearisomeness. 

Such  a  sublime  course  of  effort  as  that,  to 
which  the  true  Christian  teacher  has  consecrated  his 
life,  will  demand  for  its  right  execution,  the  most 
earnest,  constant,  thoughtful,  skilful  labor.  The 
spirit  of  work  also  is  one  of  the  very  first  elements, 
that  he  must  set  in  motion,  and  ever  keep  alive  in 
the  hearts  of  his  pupils. 

There  are  two  separate  spheres  of  toil  in  which 
he  must  be  viewed,  in  order  to  be  rightly  compre- 
hended :  at  home  and  at  school, 

Behold  him  then 

1st.  In  the  midst  of  his  labors  at  home. 


146  THE    TRUE    CHBISTIAN    TEACHER. 

§  1.  Here,  as  a  physician  or  lawyer,  who  is  else- 
where completely  involved  in  the  practical  duties  of 
his  profession,  studies  the  facts  and  philosophy  of 
his  cases,  so  he  carefully  analyzes  and  defines  to  his 
own  eye  the  condition  and  wants  of  his  pupils,  and 
the  most  efficient  mode  of  meeting  them.  In  the 
noblest  of  fields  one  surely  cannot  work  blindly  :  in 
the  highest  of  arts,  he  cannot  reach  success  on  a 
pathway  of  guesses.  It  is  the  trained  eye  and  haDd 
that  hit  the  mark.  The  laws  of  matter  are  not 
more  exact  than  are  those  of  prosperous  labor,  in 
things  spiritual  alike  and  intellectual. 

§  2.  At  home  also  he  strives  to  enlarge  his  own 
foundations  perpetually,  as  a  scholar  and  a  teacher. 
The  greater  the  breadth  and  fulness  of  his  own 
attainments  of  knowledge,  the  better  will  be  his 
capacity  for  appreciating  and  selecting  the  true 
elements,  for  kind  and  number,  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion. The  larger  his  own  acquisitions  of  mental 
discipline  and  power,  the  more  competent  will  he 
be  to  lead  others  through  difficulties  and  deserts, 
into  the  realms  of  thought  and  truth,  the  land  of 
light  and  harvests  upon  earth,  which  is  like  to 
that  above.  The  fresher  his  own  spirit  with  glad- 
ness from  constant  triumphs  of  discovery  and  con- 
quest, the  more  will  his  example  flame  as  a  guiding 
star,  to  those  whom  he  would  animate  with  a  spirit 
of  lofty  endeavor.  By  energetic  labor  at  home  he 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN"    TEACHER.  147 

has  made  himself  what  he  is  ;  and  in  the  same  way 
he  will  keep  ever  rising  into  new  attainments. 

(1.)  One  of  his  felt  duties  and  efforts  at  home 
will  be,  to  keep  himself  fully  informed  of  passing 
events  :  so  as  to  be  in  complete  sympathy  with  the 
great  community  of  those  who  are  living  in  the 
same  age. 

Each  man  needs  for  his  own  sake  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  his  age  upon  him,  as  in  it  and  for  it  he 
is  required  to  conduct  himself,  as  a  true  man. 
Here  is  the  horizon  of  his  earthly  being  ;  and  amid 
its  circumstances,  forces  and  movements  he  is  to 
live  d&d  grow  and  act,  as  in  his  native  element. 
This  age  has  in  it  the  strength  and  fulness  of  all 
preceding  ages.  In  it  they  find  their  culmination 
and  consummation.  How  is  a  whole  volume  of 
history  often  suddenly  unrolled  at  our  feet  in  a 
single  day  !  Each  new  age  makes  its  own  special 
demands  on  the  men  that  belong  to  it  ;  and  each 
man  belongs  in  fact  as  specifically  to  his  own  age, 
as  any  race  of  men  or  animals  or  plants  to  the  zone 
in  which  they  occur.  And  how  can  one  prepare 
others  in  all  the  elements  and  forms  of  a  right  edu- 
cational outfit  for  life  just  as  it  is,  who  does  not 
well  know  and  deeply  feel  the  actual  condition  and 
urgencies  of  the  times.  So  many  mischoose  their 
proper  occupation  in  life,  and  is  not  the  number 
legion,  because  not  having  seen  themselves,  nor 


148  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

having  had  teachers  who  saw  before  them  and  for 
them,  what  it  was  that  God  and  man  would  have 
them  do  while  upon  the  earth.  The  common 
charge  and  much  more  the  common  fact  if  it  be 
such,  that  our  educational  appliances  fail  in  the 
result,  of  any  thing  like  a  real  adequate  preparation 
for  life  as  it  is,  should  lead  to  a  careful  examination 
of  what  can  be  done,  what  ought  to  be  done  and 
what  in  fact  is  done,  in  so  high  a  sphere  of  action 
and  influence. 

(2.)  The  true  teacher  will  also  employ  himself, 
at  home,  in  close  earnest  study.  Every  day  will 
be  fruitful  to  him  in  new  ideas.  To  stud^is  his 
joy,  as  it  gives  delightful  employment  to  his  mind, 
which  must  otherwise  fold  in  its  powers  in  dull  pas- 
sivity upon  itself ;  and  as  also  wherever  he  turns 
his  eye  eagerly,  to  find  something  new  above,  around, 
beneath  or  within  him,  every  effort  is  rewarded  with 
discovery  ;  and  the  whole  universe  he  finds  is  full 
of  ever  new,  unthought-of  riches,  awaiting  his  re- 
search. 

Do  not  many  of  even  our  so-called  higher  pro- 
fessional teachers,like  the  mass  of  our  other  educated 
men,  come  to  be  quite  stationary  in  all  elements 
and  forms  of  mental  advancement,  at  a  very  early 
period  ?  How  few  grow  as  continuously  and  rapidly, 
from  thirty-five  to  sixty  as  from  fifteen  to  thirty- 
five  ;  and  yet  with  the  larger  facilities  of  study,  and 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  149 

the  higher  powers  of  intellectual  movement  belong- 
ing to  full  manhood,  and  all  the  stimulus  to  be 
derived  from  the  pleasure  and  profit  of  past  acqui- 
sition, and  the  advantage  of  trained  habits,  and  the 
wider  scope  obtained  for  the  practical  employment 
of  new  knowledge  and  new  inward  augmentations 
of  power,  ought  not  a  higher  rate  of  increase  to  be 
expected  of  our  intellectual  men  at  this  period  of 
their  lives,  than  ever  before  ?  The  awful  difficulty 
is,  that,  such  is  the  vis  inertias  of  most  minds,  so 
small  is  the  felt  pressure  of  the  great  unrealized 
future,  vast  and  wonderful  beyond  all  conception  as 
it  is,  when  a  comfortable  livelihood  is  obtained,  the 
energies  of  multitudes  at  once  stagnate  as  if  the  end 
of  life  were  gained,  and  as  if  they  themselves,  with 
all  their  apparatus  of  sublime  faculties,  were  after 
all  but  well-appointed  machines  for  grinding  out  a 
certain  modicum  of  earthly  comfort,  or  of  earthly 
show. 

The  field  of  labor  opening  before  the  true 
teacher  for  perpetual  acquisitions,  is  twofold  :  that 
of  the  study  or  class  of  studies,  which,  from  his 
peculiar  taste  for  them  or  success  in  them,  he  con- 
siders his  specialty  and  that  of  general  scholarship, 
in  which,  in  common  with  all  educated  men,  he  de- 
sires to  obtain  as  much  knowledge  as  he  can,  in  the 
direction  of  the  great  wide  all-embracing  drift  of 
his  general  thoughts  and  efforts,  as  a  man.  He 


150  THE    TRUE    CHRI&TAlfr    TEACHER. 

who  would  fire  others  with  a  spirit  of  progress,  must 
possess  that  spirit  himself.     He,  who  would   lead 
them  to  seek  for  great  acquisitions,  must  have  large 
wealth  of  his  own  to  use.     The  teacher's  ideals,  in 
repect  to  the  style  of  his  work  and  the  measure  of 
his  successes  will  become,  whether  with  his  desire 
or  without  it,  the  ideals  adopted  by  his  pupils.     In 
the  study  of  painting,  sculpture,  music  or  any  high 
mechanical  art,  men  act  wisely  in  seeking  only  those 
to  instruct  them,  who  themselves  excel  in  the  prac- 
tical execution  of  that  art.     And  so,  in  the  sphere 
of  personal  education,  he  who  comes  into  full,  warm 
communion  of  soul  with  one  who  is  ever  rising  eagerly 
himself,  from  height  to  height  of  intellectual  pro- 
gress, is  blest  indeed  ;  for  he  has  a  leader  in  spirit 
as  well  as  in  form,  a  living,  active,  zealous  guide  to 
the  great  things  of  heaven  and  earth.     But  where 
are  such  men,  of  fervid  interest  in  their  own  con- 
stant improvement  alike  and  that  of  others,  to  be 
found  ?      Is    any   profession    more    disgraced    by 
abounding   indifferentism   among   those  who  have 
ventured,  unbidden  of  God  or  man,  within  its  sacred 
precincts  ?     A  man  filled  to  the  full  with  knowl- 
edge and  thought  and  high  desire,  is  in  his  looks 
and  postures  and  motions  and  words,  completely 
antipodal  to  the  style  of  manhood  to  which  he  could 
otherwise  attain,  and  to  which  the  mass    around 
him   of  even  so-called   educated  men   do   attain. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  151 

The  umittered  language  of  the  eye,  the  mien  and 
the  manner,  breathed  out  from  the  whole  manifest 
purpose  and  conviction  of  the  soul  :  this  reaches 
more  quickly  and  vividly  the  inner  ear  of  the  mind, 
than  words  spoken  to  the  outward  ear,  which  often 
never  pass,  at  all,  out  of  its  chambers  into  those  of 
the  heart. 

The  greatest  want  among  the  working  forces  of 
our  educational  system,  is  the  want  of  men  of  lofty 
purpose  in  the  profession  :  men  determined  to  take 
possession  of  its  broadest  and  richest  fields,  and  to 
scale  its  grandest  heights.  There  are  not  giants 
enough  among  our  scholars  :  a  class  indeed  includ- 
ing multitudes  more  in  name  than  belong  to  it  in 
fact.  But  the  greatest  glory  of  any  people,  next  to 
general  religion  and  general  liberty,  is  true,  thorough, 
general  scholarship  ;  with  such  heights  of  private 
scholarship  swelling  and  rising  upwards  out  of  it, 
as  shall  give  to  society  everywhere  in  things  intel- 
lectual and  moral  an  abundance  of  bold  mountain- 
scenery,  and  of  clear  strong  mountain-air. 

But  consider  the  true  teacher  at  work, 

2dly.  In  school. 

Here  is  the  spot  where  he  brings,  joyfully,  all 
the  riches  of  his  heart,  and  of  a  life  spent  in  labor 
and  prayer,  with  much  purpose  and  plan  and  hope, 
and  lays  them  down,  lovingly  and  trustfully,  at  the 
feet  of  his  Master  as  a  tribute  of  love  to  Him,  and 


152  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

at  the  feet  of  his  pupils  with  deep  holy  longings  to 
do  them  good.  He  comes  not  hither,  therefore,  as 
a  laggard  who  has  found  life  full  of  cheats  ;  or  who 
works  against  his  will,  because  the  curse  of  work  is 
upon  him.  Not  with  slow  and  measured  steps  of 
feeling,  does  his  heart  return  to  its  daily  toil,  as  a 
captive  held  in  honds  ;  but  as  a  deer  when  uncon- 
fined  would  bound  away  exulting  to  his  forest-home, 
or  an  eagle  would  fly  aloft  from  an  open  cage  into 
the  upper  air.  Is  there,  one  may  ask,  can  there  by 
any  possibility  be,  such  food  for  strong  thought  and 
exhilarated  energy  in  a  mere  school-room,  when 
surrounded  by  children,  altogether  unripe  in  years 
and  knowledge,  whose  eyes  are  quite  unopened  yet 
to  the  vast  and  beautiful  universe  around  them  ; 
and  whose  ears  are  so  deaf  to  all  its  higher  voices 
and  all  its  profoundest  harmonies,  as  not  even  to 
Lear  them  yet  at  all.  Yes  !  give  me  but  one  child 
of  the  Highest,  into  the  living  chords  of  whose 
being  I  am  to  breathe  thought  and  feeling  ;  the 
light  of  whose  spirit  I  am  to  kindle  ;  and  the  tread 
of  whose  footsteps  over  this  dark  world  and  into  the 
gorgeous  future  beyond,  are  to  be  shaped  by  me,  and 
you  put  at  once  the  crown  of  a  king  upon  my  head, 
and  the  wand  of  a  prophet  into  my  hand  ;  and  you 
commission  me  to  do  a  work  the  sense  of  which,  if  I 
have  any  true  sense  of  it,  will  give  a  divine  energy 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  153 

and  dignity,  at  once,  to  all  my  movements,  because 
it  is  the  highest  of  all  work  on  earth  for  God. 

In  order  rightly  to  appreciate  the  teacher,  as  a 
workman,  in  reference  both  to  the  style  of  his  work 
and  also  his  own  genius  and  nobleness  in  rightly 
conducting  it,  we  must  consider  briefly  the  natural 
preparation  of  those,  for  whom  and  on  whom  he  is  to 
labor,  for  his  plans  of  effort  in  their  behalf ;  and 
look  also,  in  contrast  with  the  true  teacher's  style 
of  influence  upon  them,  at  the  frequent  and  indeed 
common  way  in  which  they  are  mismanaged  and 
abused. 

Children  have  certain  special  characteristics,  as 
such,  adapting  them  to  receive,  just  at  the  period 
of  his  contact  with  them,  his  full  formative  influ- 
ence. What  then  are  the  preparatives  of  childhood 
and  youth,  for  the  reception  of  deep  determinate 
influences  into  the  character  ?  Behold  them  !  they 
are  elements  of  susceptibility  and  activity,  that  are 
always  reaching,  blindly  and  yet  instinctively,  after 
a  supply  of  their  wants.  They  are  these  :  inquisi- 
tiveness,  or  a  great  desire  to  know  more  ;  acquisi- 
tiveness, or  a  great  desire  to  own  more ;  great 
sensitiveness  to  others'  thoughts  and  remarks  con- 
cerning them  ;  a  restless  love  of  action  ;  delight  in 
every  new  conscious  exercise  of  power  ;  special 
confidence  in  their  natural  guides  as  appointed  of 

God  for  them,  their  parents  and  teachers  ;  a  spirit 
7* 


154  THE    TEUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHEE. 

of  constant  imitation  ;  buoyant,  ever-bubbling  sport- 
iveness  of  feeling  ;  and,  in  general,  a  full  broad 
openness  of  nature  to  receive  whatever  person  or 
influence  that  approaches  them,  in  a  genial  stimu- 
lating persistent  way.  These  elements  enumerated 
all  belong  in  special  strength  to  the  period  of  youth 
as  such  ;  and  are  so  many  open  avenues  to  action 
and  influence  over  the  heart,  at  the  first,  which  are 
soon  afterwards  closed  one  after  the  other,  by  self- 
ishness or  suspiciousness,  to  all  access  from,  without, 
except  by  formal  and  cautious  permission. 

But,  in  what  terrific  ways  are  these  tender 
sensibilities  of  childhood  to  right  influence  generally 
abused  !  The  uprisings  of  curiosity  are  battered 
down  by  ridicule  :  the  spirit  of  acquisition  is  un- 
noticed, or  led  aside  from  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
or  of  excellence,  to  shrewd  and  sharp  ways  of  making 
gain :  the  delicate  susceptibilities  are  ruthlessly 
trampled  under  foot  :  the  desire  for  activity  is 
allowed  to  run  into  a  love  of  mischief,  so  that  it  is 
deemed  by  many  complimentary  to  a  child  to  call 
him  roguish  :  the  disposition  to  confide  in  those  who 
are  his  superiors  is  so  often  thrust  at  with  marvels 
and  tricks  and  deceits,  that  even  the  young  child 
ordinarily  learns  early  to  be  suspicious  :  his  love  of 
imitation,  instead  of  being  the  silken  chord  that  God 
designed  it  to  be  for  leading  him  towards  heaven, 
becomes  a  chain  of  darkness  in  the  hands  of  false 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  155 

guides  leading  him  to  ruin,  who  yet  laugh  constantly 
at  the  deceptions  that  they  practise  upon  him  and 
at  his  own  short  steps  and  many  falls  in  following 
after  them  ;  while  all  the  glad  impulses  of  his 
young,  laughing  heart,  are  so  deadened  by  stolid 
indifference  to  him  or  by  vexatious  teasing  or  by 
constant  interdicts  upon  his  own  appropriate  pleas- 
ures, that  a  large  proportion  of  our  youths  have  old 
faces  and  dry  hearts  and  dull  pulses,  while  yet  in 
their  teens. 

How  different  from  such  foolish,  false  and  cruel 
treatment  of  the  young,  is  that  other  mode  of  deal- 
ing with  them  and  their  interests,  which  is  inspired 
by  just  views  of  their  immortal  natures  ;  and,  which, 
ever  flowing  in  a  strong  stream  from  a  heart  full  of 
joy  itself,  abounds  in  such  beautiful  elements  of 
influence,  as  these  :  constant  sympathy  with  them 
in  their  joys  and  sorrows  :  glad  attention  to  their 
wants  and  ways  :  readiness  to  overlook  little  offences, 
and  to  interpret  all  things  in  them  generously  ;  and 
unbounded  devotion  to  their  improvement  and  hap- 
piness at  all  times. 

That  the  true  teacher  may  be  seen  as  he  is  in 
school,  we  must  look  at  him,  in  the  four  great  modes 
of  labor  which  there  open  before  him  :  instruction, 
government,  personal  influence  and  direct  religious 
effort. 

1st.  Instruction. 


156  THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

To  instruct,  from  Latin  instruo,  means  literally 
to  pile  up  or  upon,  to  prepare,  to  furnish  ;  and  this 
indeed  is  real  instruction :  the  right  and  full  furnish- 
ing of  the  youthful  mind  for  life  as  it  is,  for  its  duties 
and  experiences,  its  toils  and  pleasures.  The  true 
teacher  has  a  definite  aim  in  his  work,  by  which  it 
is  all  shaped,  and  with  the  spirit  of  which  every  part 
of  it  is  animated  ;  and  that  is  the  procurement  in 
each  individual  of  the  systematic  and  symmetrical 
development  of  his  entire  nature,  as  both  a  receptive 
and  active  being  of  high  endowments,  invited  and 
commanded  of  God  to  spend  all  his  powers  and 
resources,  as  best  he  can,  for  Him. 

§  1.  His  first  and  constant  effort  is,  to  get  each 
pupil  vigorously  at  work  for  his  own  self-culture. 
Application  is  the  lever  of  all  his  plans  and  hopes 
for  the  student.  He  has  no  idea  of  overlaying  his 
mind  with  learning,  as  a  gilded  external  accom- 
plishment ;  or  of  ministering,  in  any  way,  to  the 
petty  conceits  of  a  weak  and  idle  nature.  He  is 
ever  intent  therefore  upon  stimulating  his  pupils,  in 
all  possible  ways,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to 
wakefulness  of  thought,  loftiness  of  aim,  and  energy 
of  purpose.  Whatever  new  ideas  or  influences  he 
can  set  in  motion  at  any  time  in  their  hearts,  con- 
cerning the  value  of  knowledge,  the  preciousness  of 
time,  the  glory  of  man's  mental  and  moral  consti- 
tution, the  magnificence  of  the  universe,  as  the  field 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  157 

in  which  his  thoughts  and  plans  are  to  range,  the 
greatness  of  the  future,  and  the  ineffable  majesty  of 
God,  as  his  King  and  Friend  and  Father,  he  is 
watchful  and  eager  to  communicate.  All  his  looks 
and  words  and  deeds  are  full  of  the  light  of  these 
great  truths,  ever  burning  with  intense  heat  upon 
the  altar  of  his  own  heart ;  and  the  holy  fire  he  can- 
not keep  pent  up,  if  he  would,  within  the  narrow 
chambers  of  his  own  single  soul. 

In  these  views  is  contained  the  true  commentary 
upon  the  remark  so  often  made  by  parents,  and  true 
as  far  as  it  goes,  which  is  only  however  half  way  of 
the  whole  reality,  that  a  given  boy  can  be  readily 
coaxed  but  not  driven  ;  and  that  he  needs  to  be 
encouraged.  He  does  indeed :  he  needs  to  be  en- 
couraged to  what  is  right  ;  and  as  truly  and  as 
earnestly  discouraged  from  what  is  wrong. 

§  2.  The  true  teacher  also  continually  sets  obsta- 
cles, of  set  purpose,  over  against  each  pupil,  which 
he  must  overcome  or  be  overcome  by  them.  This  is 
God's  mode  of  training  men  in  his  providence  to 
greatness  of  intellect  and  heart ;  and  although  FO 
many  object  to  it,  as  so  full  of  mystery  in  Him  and 
of  trial  to  themselves,  it  would  be  difficult,  it  is 
certain,  to  invent  any  other  system  which  would  be 
equally  effective  in  habituating  men  to  strong 
thought  and  action.  In  every  conceivable  way 
beside,  the  mind  would  be  left  to  the  drift  of  its  own 


158  THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

caprices  :  forever  floating,  as  an  inert  mass  of  con- 
sciousness, upon  a  sea  of  chance  or  fate.  But  if 
such  be  the  plan  of  that  great  Being,  in  guiding  his 
children  to  the  greatest  possible  enlargement  of  their 
powers,  who  made  them  on  purpose  to  educate  them  ; 
any,  surely,  who  are  engaged  subordinately  in  the 
same  labors,  may  well  imitate  His  example.  This 
is  indeed  the  perfection  of  art,  of  mechanical  skill, 
of  parental  duty,  of  statesmanship  and  of  all  high 
and  true  educational  treatment  of  men,  to  watch 
carefully  how  God  accomplishes,  in  the  mighty 
sphere  of  His  activity,  the  same  kind  of  results  which 
we  seek  ;  and  then  carefully  and  prayerfully,  al- 
though at  such  great  distance,  to  tread  in  his  foot- 
steps, according  to  the  measure  of  the  sphere  which 
we  are  to  occupy,  and  our  capacity  for  filling  it. 

§  3.  He  aims  to  establish,  by  regularity  of  ar- 
rangements, requirements  and  practice  in  his  work, 
perfect  method  in  the  working  of  the  student's 
powers,  as  well  as -in  his  own  chosen  use  of  his  time. 
The  absolute  method,  established  by  God  in  all  the 
movements  of  the  masses  of  matter,  constituting  the 
physical  universe,  as  well  as  in  the  many  chemical 
and  vital  processes,  that  are  witnessed  in  every  part 
of  them,  is  among  the  most  noticeable  and  amazing 
wonders  of  His  hand.  Absolute  method  is  one  of 
the  essentials  of  absolute  perfection ;  and  an  ever- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  159 

present  necessity  for  absolute  success  in  any  direc- 
tion by  the  finite  mind. 

§  4.  He  aims  to  establish,  by  the  exact  com- 
prehensive, and  critical  style  of  his  requisitions  in 
the  recitation-room,  the  highest  and  truest '  ideals 
possible,  in  the  scholar's  mind,  of  what  real  study  is 
and  what  are  true  scholarly  attainments.  Great  is 
his  sense  of  responsibility  about  this  part  of  his 
work  ;  for  here  is  the  secret  fountain  of  its  largest 
issues,  for  good  or  evil.  A  recitation  such  an  one 
does  not  consider  as  a  piece  of  vain  self-exhibition, 
on  the  part  of  the  successful,  and  much  less  as  so 
much  drudgery  to  himself,  made  necessary  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  a  livelihood  or  meeting  the  mere 
professional  demands  of  his  calling ;  but  as  the 
time  and  the  place  in  which  he  with  his  trained 
powers,  is  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  a  series  of  mental 
researches  and  decisions,  made  deliberately  by  the 
pupil,  and  offered  to  him  respectfully  and  con- 
fidingly for  his  endorsement  or  condemnation  ;  and 
in  which  he  is  to  apply  all  kinds  of  tests,  chemical 
and  mechanical,  to  the  quality  of  the  intellectual 
work  presented,  as  a  specimen  not  only  of  the  native 
and  acquired  power  of  his  mind  when  at  work,  but 
also  of  its  conceptions  what  the  style  of  that  work 
should  be.  His  criticisms,  whatever  they  may  be, 
will  all  be  not  of  a  destructive  but  constructive 
influence,  not  depressing  and  humiliating  but 


160  THE   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

guiding,  inspiring  and  warming  in  their  style  and 
tone.  From  under  such  searching,  kindling  treat- 
ment, a  mind  of  good  quality  for  power  and  respon- 
sive to  it  in  its  moods  of  feeling,  must  come  forth  in 
the  end,  like  gold  from  a  furnace  seven  times  puri- 
fied, bright  and  beautiful. 

What  the  pupil  studies  under  a  faithful  guide 
and  master,  he  studies  until  he  learns  ;  and  what 
he  learns  he  learns  to  keep  and  to  use,  to  use 
familiarly  with  the  same  freedom  and  effect  as  a 
part  of  his  inward  self,  with  which  he  makes  use 
of  his  bodily  limbs  in  his  outward  nature.  While 
the  true  teacher  will  not  despise,  but  rather  highly 
value,  a  vast  capacious  memory  :  unlike  many  shal- 
low revilers  of  this  noble  faculty,  who,  from  either 
not  possessing  it  themselves  to  any  great  degree,  or 
not  having  ever  freighted  it  with  any  thing  but 
cheap  wares,  do  not  know  its  worth  ;  he  will  yet 
strive  with  all  earnestness,  to  reach  and  fire  per- 
petually all  the  higher  faculties  of  the  soul,  and  to 
find  a  permanent  lodgment  in  the  reason  and  the 
conscience  for  as  many  ideas  and  principles  as  pos- 
sible. In  teaching  the  pupil  ideas  as  such,  and 
leaving  him  so  far  as  possible  to  express  them  in  his 
own  words,  instead  of  using  the  forms  and  formulas 
which  others  have  devised  for  their  utterance,  you 
teach  him  to  acquire  power  of  language  and  self- 
possession  as  a  thinker,  in  the  presence  of  others ; 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  161 

while  at  the  same  time  training  him  to  make  all  his 
labor  definite  in  his  studies,  and  all  his  conquests 
sure. 

How  simple  therefore  and  yet  how  precious  are 
the  secrets  of  the  true  teacher's  success,  in  the 
office  of  instruction  !  They  are,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  thorough  intellectuality  and  spirituality  of  his 
labors,  and,  on  the  other,  such  effective  elements  of 
action  in  his  work  as  these  :  constant  stimulation  ; 
exact  method  ;  close  critical  requisitions  ;  and 
thorough  patient  drill,  connected  with  frequent  sys- 
tematic reviewing,  so  as  to  make  secure  and  familiar 
all  acquisitions  that  may  be  obtained. 

In  the  specific  act  of  instruction  itself,  what 
various  elements  of  power  can  be  employed  by  one 
earnestly  devoted  to  their  use,  in  the  form  of  ex- 
position, illustration,  collateral  information  and 
broad  philosophic  generalizations  ! 

The  philosophical  mode  of  instruction,  in  what- 
ever form,  is  the  only  true  one  :  as  it  is  alone 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  young  inquiring  minds,  that 
need  for  their  right  inward  growth  principles  rather 
than  mere  facts,  which  are  always  relatively  super- 
abundant in  their  comprehension  of  things.  On  a 
thorough  framework  of  principles,  every  other  form 
and  element  of  knowledge  communicated  or  acquired 
can  be  laid  up  in  its  true  place  and  for  its  true  use. 
It  is  also  necessary  on  the  other  hand  that  the 


162  THE   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

student  should  be  taught  the  practical  habit  of 
making  constant  application  of  all  principles  fur- 
nished him  by  his  author  or  teacher,  to  the  real 
utilities  of  life  ;  for  principles  like  every  thing  else 
are  valuable  only  for  their  uses.  Some  err  in  one 
of  these  directions  :  some  in  the  other  ;  and  many 
in  both. 

There  are  three  classes  of  studies  which,  from 
the  special  scope  that  they  furnish  for  the  full  and 
yet  varied  use  of  the  best  resources  and  talents  of 
an  instruc  tor,  deserve  a  distinct  consideration  here  : 
history,  science  and  language. 

Many  rob  each  and  all  of  these  departments  of 
instruction  of  very  much  of  their  profit  and  pleas- 
ure, by  a  slavish  confinement  to  text-books.  An 
author,  in  the  hands  of  a  true  teacher,  furnishes  but 
a  leading  string,  by  which  his  pupils  may  direct 
their  footsteps  in  the  hour  of  study  to  a  general 
acquaintance  with  the  subject  ;  and  which  he  may 
take  up  afterwards,  in  common  with  them,  for  their 
guidance  to  a  better  acquaintance  with  its  treasures. 
The  author  is  only  therefore  the  teacher's  servant  ; 
and  he  who  treats  him  as  his  master,  establishes  at 
once  thereby  his  own  utter  disqualification  for  the 
high  office  that  he  has  assumed. 

Some  also,  and  generally  without  consciousness 
of  the  fact,  teach  the  various  knowledges,  each  as 
an  end  by  itself,  and  not  as  a  means  to  the  end  of 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  163 

all  education  :  which  is  the  proper  development  and 
equipment  of  the  pupil,  for  achieving  the  greatest 
possible  results  for  good,  throughout  all  his  life,  to 
God  and  his  fellow-men.  It  is  astonishing  indeed, 
how  few  living  influences  seem  to  exist  in  our  foun- 
tains of  education,  where  of  all  places  upon  earth 
they  should  surely  most  abound.  The  uses  of  edu- 
cation are  multitudinous  ;  and  all  of  the  most  vital 
practical  kind  ;  and  how  can  one  who  undertakes  to 
dispense  its  blessings,  think  of  aiming  at  any  other 
object  in  all  cases  than  the  pupil's  good  ;  or  think- 
ing of  that  to  some  degree  dole  out  his  love  in  any 
stinted  measure  to  him.  A  slow-paced,  dull-eyed, 
effete  teacher  !  can  any  monstrosity  among  all  God's 
works  appear  like  this,  to  those  who  dwell  in 
Heaven  ! 

And  is  it  not  true  also,  that  -many  undertake  to 
teach  others  who  themselves  should  be  learners,  not 
only  of  the  first  principles  of  so  divine  an  employ- 
ment, but  also  of  the  very  substance  of  the  things 
themselves,  that  they  teach.  The  idea  has  been 
quite  common  in  the  profession  of  education,  and  in 
this  alone,  that  a  man  of  slender  preparation  might 
enter,  at  once,  into  even  its  highest  offices  and  then 
qualify  himself  afterwards  specifically  for  its  details. 
And  indeed  the  neglect  and  abuse  with  which  this 
exalted  vocation  has  been  long  visited  by  the  mul- 
titude without,  have  been  attributable  to  the  wide- 


164  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

spread  practical  indifference  manifested  toward  all 
its  higher  claims,  by  so  many  within  its  precincts. 

(1.)  History  is  the  most  suggestive  of  all  the 
great  elements  of  instruction.  It  covers  the  whole 
field  of  human  activity  and  experience,  and  fur- 
nishes endless  materials  for  profitable  thought  and 
remark.  Historical  composition  is  itself  one  of  the 
highest  forms  of  literature,  for  both  strength  and 
beauty  of  style  ;  and  from  its  wonderful  combination 
of  the  means  of  mental  excitement  and  information, 
with  all  the  resources  of  argument,  sentiment  and 
taste,  it  appeals,  beyond  any  other  form  of  written 
thought,  to  the  interest  of  the  old  alike  and  of  the 
young,  as  well  as  of  the  learned  and  of  the  unlearn- 
ed. Standing  on  the  high  and  broad  platform  of 
historical  instruction,  a  teacher  who  is  himself  in- 
spired with  the  love  of  it,  can  exert  an  exciting, 
elevating  and  controlling  influence  over  his  pupils, 
equalled  nowhere  else  in  his  work,  and  spreading  its 
rich  benefits  like  an  overflowing  stream,  over  all 
their  other  studies  and  endeavors.  The  whole  ad- 
ditional power  of  the  lecturing  system  of  teaching, 
should  here  be  mingled  in  detail  by  the  teacher 
with  that  of  formal  recitation  by  the  student  :  both 
instructor  and  scholar  mutually  combining  their 
interest  and  action  in  the  recitation,  as  can  be  done 
nowhere  else  not  even  in  the  sciences,  so  well.  Not 
Socrates  nor  Plato  had  nobler  opportunities,  for 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  165 

their  searching  questions,  or  glowing  disquisitions,  or 
any  of  their  special  modes  of  contact  with  the 
minds  of  those  who  waited  for  knowledge  at  their 
lips.  A  man,  whose  mind  can  lie  flat  upon  the  field 
of  historical  vision  and  exploration,  has  in  his  nature 
an  amount  of  stupidity  which  nothing  can  dis- 
turb, and  to  undertake  to  remove  which  would 
bring  but  little  gain  to  its  victim. 

The  true  study  of  history  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant, of  all  the  appliances  of  a  high  educational 
system.  If  the  foundations  of  a  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  its  lessons  are  not  laid  in  youth  they 
never  can  be  laid  on  any  great  scale,  amid  the  cares 
and  labors  with  which  after-life  is  crowded.  To  *be 
rightly  pursued,  it  must  be  not  merely  read  but 
studied.  Slowly  and  repetitiously  must  its  paths 
be  traversed  ;  and  carefully  must  its  facts  be  col- 
lected. Haste  will  surely,  here  if  anywhere,  bring 
but  scanty  harvests. 

It  has  in  its  depths,  like  honey  in  the  comb,  a 
rich  deposit  of  philosophy  :  the  philosophy  of  human 
life,  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  a]l  greatness  and  of  the 
causes  and  courses  of  failure  and  success  in  all 
earthly  undertakings.  It  is  for  their  use  in  display- 
ing the  real  forms  of  human  excellence  and  honor, 
directly  as  the  principal  figures  to  be  seen  :  or  in- 
directly, by  some  dark  background  serving  to  bring 
them  into  clearer  relief,  that  all  its  pictures  are  so 


166  THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

carefully  drawn  to  the  life.  This  inner  sense  of  all 
the  outward  circumstance  and  show  of  so  much  re- 
corded action  must  be  thoroughly  seen,  or  the  wide 
stream  of  the  past  will  be  made  to  flow  before  our 
eyes  but  in  vain.  God  in  history  :  this  is  the  key 
to  all  its  philosophy.  As  well  might  one  think  of 
comprehending  a  steam  engine,  by  merely  looking 
at  it  as  a  piece  of  wondrous  mechanism,  without 
knowing  its  adaptations  and  uses  ;  as  of  understand- 
ing any  thing,  beyond  its  mere  surface,  of  the  great 
organic  past,  without  the  perception  of  God's  plans 
within  and  around  all  human  events.  History  is, 
externally,  an  account  of  what  man  has  done  and 
undertaken  to  do  ;  but,  internally,  it  is  full  of  the 
hidden  life  of  God's  thoughts  and  feelings,  restrain- 
ing, counterworking  and  directing  the  influences, 
that  man  has  set  in  motion.  It  is  therefore,  like 
so  many  other  things,  double  in  the  elements  that 
compose  it  :  being,  on  the  one  hand,  the  develop- 
ment of  man's  agency  on  man's  part,  and,  on  the 
other,  of  the  great  scheme  of  redemption  on  God's 
part,  including  in  it  his  daily  providence  as  well  as 
the  plans  of  his  grace  and  the  work  of  his  spirit. 
Kightly  taught  therefore  history,  like  nature,  be- 
comes a  grand  volume  of  theology.  The  key  to  its 
secrets  and  its  marvels  is  to  be  found,  in  the  Jew- 
ish prophets  ;  and  to  such  a  wonderful  degree,  that 
prophecy  might  be  defined  to  be,  history  written  in 


THE    TEUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHEB.  167 

advance,  as  history  itself  might  also  be  called  the 
prophets  verified. 

(2.)  In  connection  with  history,  instruction  in 
science  is  one  of  the  teacher's  highest  fields  of  labor. 
Here  are  many  and  open  channels  for  the  outflow 
of  his  strongest  thoughts  and  feelings  ;  and  abun- 
dant opportunities  for  accomplishing  the  highest  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  ends,  at  which  he  can  aim. 
Science,  like  history,  leads  directly  unto  Grod.  He 
who  stops  in  teaching  it  at  the  mere  outside  fact 
or  arrangement  of  facts  presented,  without  inspect- 
ing its  inward  mechanism  of  adaptations,  abuses  his 
own  nature  as  well  as  that  of  his  disciple  ;  for 
science  is  but  man's  collection  of  a  few  of  the  speci- 
mens of  God's  skilful  provision  for  the  activity 
comfort  or  improvement  of  mankind,  in  some  of  the 
physical,  intellectual  or  moral  aspects  of  his  being. 
It  is  therefore  the  ever-present  duty  as  it  is  the 
pleasure  of  the  true  educator  in  teaching  science, 
to  show,  wherever  he  himself  can  see  it,  the  con- 
triving hand  of  that  great  Mechanician,  who,  in 
building  the  universe  or  any  part  of  it  as  the  home 
of  his  intelligent  creatures,  purposely  left  its  tracery 
of  design  open  to  their  discovery,  appreciation  and 
grateful  recognition.  The  sense  of  God's  existence, 
and  goodness,  and  watchfulness  over  all  his  creatures, 
can  be  nowhere  obtained  away  from  the  closet,  the 
secret  place  of  his  manifestation  to  the  sons  of 


168      THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHER. 

men,  as  among  the  open  demonstrations  of  science  ; 
where  the  revelation  made  is  as  near  that  of  vision, 
as  is  possible  without  it. 

In  teaching  science,  reference  must  be  had  also 
by  the  instructor,  at  all  times,  to  its  practical  uses. 
Every  thing  that  has  value  upon  earth  derives  it 
from  its  connection,  in  some  way,  with  man ;  and 
here  is  the  value  of  science,  in  its  ultimate  uses. 
The  tendency  to  divorce  study  and  learning  from 
the  wants  of  every-day  life,  is  neither  divine  nor 
human.  The  two  grand  terms  of  every  thing  on 
earth,  and  in  the  universe  and  so  also  of  the  whole 
universe  itself,  are  God  and  man.  From  God  to 
man,  this  is  the  direction  of  the  scale  :  the  secret 
alphabet  of  all  the  hieroglyphs  of  Time  and  of 
Eternity. 

Instruction  in  science  in  its  higher  forms  and 
degrees,  will,  rightly  conducted,  establish  in  the 
diligent  student  such  mental  habits,  especially,  as 
quickness  of  perception,  thoroughness  in  exploration, 
careful  scrutiny,  close  penetrative  analysis,  exact 
method,  and  skill  in  analogical  reasoning.  At  such 
results  in  his  pupil's  mind,  baptized  meanwhile  with 
a  deep  religiousness  of  spirit,  the  true  teacher  will 
earnestly  aim.  Around  each  lesson,  in  the  text- 
book, as  a  nucleus,  he  will  gather  delightedly  all 
his  own  stores  of  thought  and  treasures  of  feeling, 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  169 

and  lavish  them  upon  his  pupil,  as  his  trihute  of 
interest  in  the  science  and  in  him. 

Many,  even  Christian  teachers,  by  a  heathenish 
way  of  speaking  of  the  facts  of  science,  as  the  laws 
of  nature,  her  preparations  provisions  and  compen- 
sations, quite  exclude  God  from  His  own  universe 
in  their  instructions  ;  as  if  nature,  which  is  but  the 
product  of  his  will,  were  herself  God  or  had  given 
birth  to  her  own  self,  as  an  independent,  self-origi- 
nated existence,  in  his  creation. 

(3.)  Eight  instruction  in  language,  also,  in 
respect  to  the  number  to  be  influenced  by  it  and  its 
bearing  on  all  the  intellectual  ends  of  education,  is 
of  very  high  importance.  In  what  a  dry  and  spirit- 
less manner  is  it  however  generally  furnished  ? 
Who  could  imagine,  in  looking  at  the  languid  air  of 
many  self-appointed  teachers  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages, and  hearing  the  dull  drawling  recitations  of 
their  pupils,  that  in  their  slow  movements  as  a 
company  of  drones,  with  heavy  hands  and  steps  and 
eyes,  they  were  all  the  time  passing  through  a  land, 
full  of  odorous  perfumes  and  gems  and  mountains  of 
wealth.  The  true  spirit  of  study  in  the  depart- 
ment of  language,  sweeps  with  living  energy,  ovei 
many  fields  -of  deep  enchanting  interest,  as  grammar, 
prosody,  specific  and  comparative  etymology,  an- 
tiquities, history,  biography,  geography  and  litera- 
ture, out  of  the  materials  of  all  of  which  the 


170  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

accomplished  teacher  can  and  will,  in  various  com- 
binations, weave  the  web  of  his  daily  instructions  to 
his  pupils.  What  a  place  of  earnest  strife  can  one, 
who  is  himself  zealous,  make  a  school-room  to  be, 
which  is  full  of  youthful  linguists,  not  indeed  of 
strife  with  each  other  for  a  selfish  triumph,  under 
the  power  of  unholy  ambition,  but  of  conflict  with 
ever  new  difficulties,  each  for  himself ;  which,  like 
bold  adventurers  climbing  up  a  mountain's  side  with 
shoutings,  they  shall  pass  over  in  succession  with 
exulting  footsteps. 

In  whatever  department  of  instruction  the  true 
teacher  is  engaged,  his  conception  of  his  relations  to 
his  pupils  is  ever  the  same,  that,  from  his  own 
spirit  as  a  powerful  battery,  the  whole  life  and 
character  of  the  school  are  to  be  daily  and  momen- 
tarily derived. 

But  look  now  at  the  true  Christian  teacher,  in 
another  department  of  his  work. 

2dly.  Government. 

This  is  one  of  the  highest  of  arts  ;  and  natural 
genius  for  it  is  as  shining  a  gift  from  God,  as  inborn 
capacity  for  any  other  lofty  style  of  action.  The 
faculty,  when  native  to  a  high  degree, involves  in  its 
exercise  a  full  and  quick  comprehension  of  human 
nature  in  any  of  its  forms,  an  immediate  intuition 
of  the  demands  of  every  crisis,  facility  in  making 
provision  for  them,  and  alertness  in  mental  action, 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN   TEACHER.  171 

as  well  as  a  natural  sense  of  the  beauty  of  order  and 
a  natural  force  of  will ;  which,  combined,  make  it  as 
easy  to  govern  as  to  think  or  act  in  any  other 
direction.  In  discussing  this  part  of  the  subject,  I 
shall  consider  the  general  style  of  management 
which  the  teacher  should  adopt  toward  his  pupils  ; 
and  yet  management  is  not  the  word  that  will 
rightly  figure  to  all  minds  the  full  orb  of  our  idea  : 
as  so  often,  in  other  things,  it  implies  a  mixture  of 
craft  and  cunning.  If  we  call  it  treatment,  the 
phrase  will  have  perhaps  too  much  of  a  medical 
savor  about  it,  and  call  up  thoughts  of  the  student 
as  a  patient,  if  not  even  as  a  victim  :  a  conception, 
which,  as  there  is  so  much  traditionary  nonsense  in 
common  speech  and  in  some  of  our  best  literature, 
about  study  as  a  task  and  school-boy  days  as  days 
of  sour  experience,  we  are  over-willing  to  avoid. 
Let  us  call  it  then  the  high  and  skilful  ordering  of 
all  those  influences  which  serve  to  arouse,  determine 
and  prosper,  in  every  form  and  at  all  times,  the 
whole  activity  of  his  whole  nature  ;  or  in  other 
words  the  full,  designed  outlay  of  the  teacher's 
labor,  tact,  art,  taste,  genius,  strength  and  time  for 
the  greatest  possible  enlargement  and  refinement  of 
all  that  constitutes  the  real  manhood  of  the  pupil. 
So  much  of  this  part  of  the  subject  as  belongs, 
strictly,  to  either  of  the  specific  topics  of  personal 


172  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

influence  or  direct  religious  effort,  will  be  reserved 
for  subsequent  consideration. 

§  1.  The  general  discipline  of  the  higher  Chris- 
tian education  must  be  exact.  In  its  realm  of  toil, 
Law  must  sit,  although  unseen  herself,  upon  a 
throne  of  light  and  wave  her  silent  sceptre  over 
willing  happy  hearts  :  law,  that  great  invisible 
abstraction  born  of  reason  and  the  conscience,  which 
pervades,  like  God  himself,  all  the  works  of  his 
hands  with  its  mighty  presence.  If  in  military 
tactics,  in  order  to  secure  power  of  motion  and 
action  in  the  body,  such  attention  must  be  given 
with  long  and  constant  repetition,  to  the  procure- 
ment of  entire  subordination  to  authority,  manly 
endurance,  regularity,  precision  and  swiftness  of 
movement,  and  all  the  other  elements  of  effective 
warfare  :  if,  to  accomplish  by  mechanical  agency 
any  great  material  results  in  regard  to  either  force 
or  finish,  spring  and  valve  and  wheel  and  cog  must 
all  be  made  to  play  with  absolute  certainty  of  time 
and  strength,  each  in  its  proper  place,  and  all  the 
more  silently  all  the  more  beautifully  ;  how  much 
more,  in  the  higher  sphere  of  great  intellectual 
effects,  must  order  reign  :  order,  not  of  that  nega- 
tive spiritless  form  which  is  the  mere  absence  of 
disorder,  the  order  of  a  desert  ;  but  that  sublime 
marshalling  of  active  forces  to  a  grand  unity  of 
results,  which,  while  it  brings  out  of  them  the 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  173 

highest  possible  advantage,  requires  in  him  who 
thus  undertakes  to  harmonize  their  agency  to  so 
productive  an  issue,  the  greatest  possible  use  of 
skilful  and  watchful  energy.  Such  a  style  of  order 
has  a  momentum  in  it,  a  ground-swell,  that  bears 
forward  every  thing  else  that  rests  upon  it.  The 
quality  of  the  discipline  to  he  found  in  our  schools 
and  colleges,  is  not  often  what  it  should  be,  to  meet 
either  the  demands  of  Christianity  or  those  of  the 
age.  If  the  potency  and  preciousness  of  the  volun- 
tary system  of  public  life  and  manners,  and  so  of  the 
entire  democratic  framework  of  society,  be  what 
they  are  claimed  to  be,  the  nearest  possible  approxi- 
mation to  a  perfect  social  state,  then,  properly,  the 
fact  should  be  quite  manifest  in  not  only  the  relative 
but  also  the  absolute  superiority  of  our  educational 
institutions  and  appliances.  But  is  it  not  true  that 
in  multitudes  of  instances  there  is  not  as  much 
order  secured,  or  attempted  to  be  secured,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  high  ends  of  mental  and  moral  training, 
as  the  general  government  readily  obtains  of  its 
sailors  and  soldiers  ;  or  a  mercantile  house  of  its 
clerks  ;  or  a  manufacturing  company  of  its  opera- 
tives ?  The  reproach  so  often  uttered  abroad 
against  American  democracy  and  Christianity  alike, 
that  they  fail  to  sustain  before  the  bar  of  the  world's 
judgment,  their  claims  to  superior  excellence,  on  one 
of  the  most  important  of  all  test-points,  the  home — 


174  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

and  school — education  of  the  young  in  respect  to 
their  intellects,  morals  and  manners,  is  surely  too 
well  founded  to  be  either  denied  or  excused.  And 
yet,  in  the  real  type  .and  spirit  of  our  institutions, 
civil  and  religious,  fully  developed  and  employed, 
there  are  capabilities  for  attaining  great  results,  that 
no  part  of  monarchical  Europe,  however  cultivated, 
ever  has  possessed  or  can  possess.  Their  discipline  of 
the  school,  like  that  of  the  state,  is  the  discipline 
of  physical  necessity  and  of  fear  :  outward  in  its 
bearings  rather  than  inward,  mechanical  rather  than 
personal  in  its  spirit  :  that  of  compulsory  requisition, 
rather  than  that  of  stimulated  self-respect  and  well- 
acquired  self-government.  Whatever  results  are 
obtained,  are  gained  under  the  pressure  of  the  doc- 
trine, that  might  makes  right ;  while  under  our 
system  of  government,  religion  and  education,  the 
opposite  sentiment  flames  forth  everywhere,  as  our 
guiding  star,  that  right  makes  might.  And  although 
the  working  of  such  a  system  of  influences,  where 
ideas  are  the  tools  to  be  used  and  each  mind  is  to 
be  made  a  law  unto  itself,  involves  much  more  labor 
than  the  little  effort  required  to  bring  the  wheels  of 
previously  organized  social  machinery  to  bear  on  a 
given  point  at  hand,  yet  the  toil  is  well  spent,  as 
the  product  is  of  so  much  greater  value  ;  and  the 
observance  of  the  universal  rule  of  heaven  and  earth, 
that  the  more  valuable  the  result,  the  higher  and 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  175 

harder  we  must  climb  to  get  it,  will  always  bring 
with  it  its  own  reward.  To  establish  in  any  one 
habits  of  self-respect,  high  ideals  of  personal  char- 
acter, lofty  aims  and  aspirations,  and  the  deep  true 
elements  of  all  manliness  and  godliness,  which  are 
rather  one  than  two  :  being  the  same  state  of  heart 
as  manifested  variously  on  its  under  and  its  upper 
side  :  is  a  work  worthy  of  an  angel's  hand. 

§  2.  The  discipline  of  the  higher  Christian  edu- 
cation, must  also  be  genial.  The  youthful  mind  is 
as  has  been  said  remarkably  responsive  to  sympathy 
and  appreciation.  He  who  makes  much  of  a  pupil's 
excellences  and  little  of  his  faults  ;  who,  forgetful 
of  the  past,  is  always  summoning  him  cheerfully  and 
inspiringly  to  new  aims  and  efforts,  exerts  an  almost 
magical  influence  over  him  for  his  good.  Alas  ! 
how  ungenial  are  most  teachers  towards  their 
pupils :  interpreting  them  and  their  conduct  from 
the  stand-point  of  selfish  feeling,  and  ever  fretting 
their  own  thoughts  with  a  pitiful  sense  of  the  self- 
denial,  required  in  their  noble  calling  ;  instead  of 
becoming  elastic  and  heroic  and  mighty  in  their 
work,  from  a  cherished  sense  of  its  value,  if  rightly 
executed,  unto  their  pupils.  A  selfish,  materialis- 
tic, worldly-minded  teacher  of  youth  is  as  great  an 
object  of  pity,  or  rather  of  contempt,  as  can  be  found 
in  this  lower  world.  He,  on  the  contrary,  who  acts 
in  such  a  way  as  to  deserve  at  all  times  the  respect 


176  THE    TRUE     CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

and  affection  of  each  pupil,  yea  !  rather  his  imita- 
tion also,  is  a  giant  in  his  position.  He  is  not  in- 
deed himself  above  law  :  as  no  one  in  the  universe  is, 
not  even  the  Great  Divine  Being,  the  very  effluence 
of  whose  thoughts  and  feelings  is  all  according  to 
the  law  of  love  ;  but  he  is  the  law  itself  imper- 
sonated. 

There  is  wonderful  profit  and  power  to  the 
teacher  in  the  habit  of  treating  his  pupils  at  all 
times,  with  the  same  consideration  in  kind,  with 
which  the  intercourse  of  older  persons  is  stimulated 
and  gladdened,  in  cultivated  society.  Childhood  is 
remarkably  susceptible  to  all  such  kindly  influences. 
Polite  attentions  from  a  superior  in  age  and  attain- 
ments combined  have  a  wonderful  charm  to  them  ; 
as  to  men  of  low  estate,  similarly,  the  gentle  con- 
descension of  those  who  are  greatly  superior  is  so 
delightful.  Even  pleasant,  sympathetic  playfulness 
with  them  will  open  the  way,  effectually,  to  almost 
every  other  influence  upon  their  hearts.  It  grieves 
one  to  say,  as  it  does  so  many  to  see,  that  in  some 
if  not  most  of  our  colleges,  there  is  such  an  amount  of 
cold  formalism  of  management  and  manner,  on  the 
part  of  those  whose  hearts  should  be  all  aglow  with 
the  most  intense  interest  in  the  young  minds,  di- 
vorced from  the  strong  constraints  of  home  on  pur- 
pose to  obtain  the  greater  benefit  of  their  teachers' 
company,  example  and  guidance,  that  not  only  in 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEAi^%fJtT^b 

college  but  through  all  their  su^s^^SfiiJ$SJ?te  ^5\^* 
many  speak  to  each  other  of  their  college^eachexs, 
as  men  to  whom  they  feel  no  personal  attachment 
or  even  indebtedness,  and  whom  they  always  avoid 
or  at  best  fear,  rather  than  love.  But  if  anywhere 
in  the  world  the  place  or  the  occasion  can  be  found, 
in  which  one  may  naturally  and  successfully  oc- 
cupy, instead  of  the  parent,  his  very  position,  both 
in  his  own  thoughts  of  his  adopted  relationship  to 
his  pupil  and  in  his  hearty  reception  by  him  as  "  his 
next  friend  "  on  earth,  it  is  in  the  holy  work  of  edu- 
cation, yes  !  holy,  in  which  all  the  privileges  and 
powers  of  all  other  offices  of  trust  and  honor  among 
men,  are  united  in  one. 

The  two  great  component  elements  spoken  of 
above,  are,  as  already  mentioned,  those  of  all  true 
government  at  home  or  at  school,  in  the  state  or  in 
the  church,  on  earth  or  in  heaven  :  complete  scien- 
tific strictness  of  principle  and  plan,  mingled  with 
real  personal  kindness.  The  beautiful  definition  in 
the  Scriptures  of  proper  spiritual  labor  for  others,  in 
the  work  of  the  gospel,  "  speaking  the  truth  in  love," 
would  be,  if  duplicated  to  both  speaking  and  acting 
it,  an  exact  description  in  a  word,  of  the  high  art 
of  all  worthy  intercourse  in  any  form  with  each  one 
of  them.  Justice  and  mercy  :  these  are  the  two 
chief  attributes  of  the  Deity,  for  wonder  in  himself 

and  for  their  productiveness  of  all  things  great  and 
8* 


178  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

good  to  his  creatures  ;  and  they  are  the  two  highest 
manifestations  of  humanity.  To  combine  them  in 
full  proportion  ;  to  know  when  to  be  firm  and  when 
to  yield  ;  to  carry  the  conscience  of  the  pupil -in  its 
full  strength  of  judgment  and  feeling  always  with 
you,  so  that  your  acts  shall  be  at  all  times  but  the 
voice  indeed  of  his  own  deepest  unuttered  thoughts  : 
this  is  an  endeavor  in  accomplishing  which  every 
faculty  can  find  full  play  ;  and  every  resource  of 
one's  whole  vast  complex  nature,  can  be  brought 
into  complete  employment. 

At  the  bottom  of  all  other  attempts  for  the 
right  training  of  the  young,  lies  the  careful  forma- 
tion of  thorough  habits  of  industry.  Activity,  con- 
stant, true,  mental  and  moral  activity  is,  as  really, 
one  of  the  great  primary  laws  of  life  in  the  soul,  as 
breathing  in  the  body.  An  unemployed  mind,  or 
one  employed  but  feebly  and  partially,  is  not  in  a 
state  in  which  any  high  growths  of  thought  and 
feeling  can  be  planted  and  prosper.  As  well  might 
one  expect  to  display  in  rich  abundance  the  fruits 
and  flowers  of  a  luxuriant  garden,  on  hard  unbroken 
ground.  If  necessity  is  the  mother  of  inventions, 
certainly  industry  is  still  more  the  mother  of  vir- 
tues. The  requirement  of  lofty,  vigorous,  sustained 
effort  the  student's  conscience  will  always  sanction, 
as  right  ;  and  if  led  to  it  with  no  more  even  than 
ordinary  tact  and  earnestness,  as  well  as  required  to 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  179 

undertake  it,  he  will  show  at  once  in  his  looks  and 
words  and  deeds,  how  well  he  understands  that  at 
last  he  has  found  the  proper  element  in  which,  like 
a  "bird  in  the  air  or  a  fish  in  the  sea,  he  feels  that 
every  thing  around  is  strangely  adapted  to  him,  and 
he  is  as  strangely  adapted  to  it. 

In  arrangements,  requirements  and  appeals, 
directed  to  the  constant  procurement  of  earnest  ap- 
plication by  the  student,  lies  not  only  the  best  but 
also  the  only  preparation  in  his  mind  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  true  discipline  over  him.  So  far  as 
the  teacher  is  concerned  what  he  specially  needs, 
over  and  above  the  qualifications  already  mentioned, 
without  which  indeed  he  is  disqualified  for  any  part 
of  his  business,  as  love  to  his  work,  to  his  pupils  and 
to  his  Master,  is  tact.  Small  is  the  word,  it  is 
true  ;  but  great  is  its  meaning.  It  is  one  of  those 
few  words  that  are  almost  undefinable  :  their  sense 
is  so  varied  in  varying  circumstances.  Those  apt 
movements  and  happy  hits  and  quick  inventions, 
which  characterize  real  tact,  make  it  seem  more  like 
a  sort  of  luck  alive,  than  any  thing  else  :  they  in- 
volve in  them  such  a  fine  mixture  of  good  sense  and 
good  feeling  and  of  shrewdness,  as  well  as  alertness 
of  mind.  If  also  the  Teacher  combines  with  abun- 
dance of  tact  abundance  likewise  of  bright  glowing 
cheerfulness  and  even  of  warm  playful  mother-wit  : 
so  that  all  the  most  quick  responsive  susceptibilities 


180  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

of  the  pupil's  heart  are  perpetually  stirred  and 
swayed  by  his  magical  influence  :  he  moves  about 
as  a  governor  bearing  divine  insignia  of  office,  among 
the  happy  hearts  that  perpetually  obey  him,  with- 
out ever  thinking  of  the  reason  why,  and  seem  to 
themselves  to  do  by  instinct  without  requirement, 
all  the  time,  exactly  what  they  know  that  he  would 
have  them  do. 

One  of  the  chief  points  of  tact,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  a  school,  is  to  keep  always  in  motion,  as  an 
offset  to  the  ever-present  working  of  depravity  in 
each  heart,  a  thorough  system  of  anticipative  and 
preventive  influences.  To  break  the  certain  force 
of  temptations,  by  ingeniously  excluding  them  :  to 
ward  off  the  occurrence  of  junctures  and  crises  in 
one's  work  :  to  so  occupy  the  pupil's  heart  with  the 
high  aims  and  enjoyments  of  earnest  self-improve- 
ment, that  the  fiery  darts  of  the  tempter  shall  at 
once  be  extinguished,  as  if  falling  into  the  tide  of  a 
deep  strong  stream,  the  moment  that  they  reach 
him  :  this  is  tact,  that  is  worthy  of  the  noblest  in- 
tellect. One  of  the  most  desirable  of  all  feelings, 
that  the  teacher  can  possibly  create  in  each  pupil's 
mind,  in  undertaking  to  work  effectually  such  a 
high  preventive  system  of  influences,  is  that  which 
may  be  called  a  sense  of  his  personal  ubiquity. 
Eeal  or  supposed  publicity  is  a  wonderful  damper  to 
wrong  action,  in  one  who  has  a  character  to  keep  or 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  181 

make.  And  far-sighted  plans,  quick  movements  of 
body  and  mind  and  clear  intuitions,  with  strong  ex- 
ecutive energy,  are  as  valuable  qualities  in  the 
school-room  as  in  the  battle-field.  Military  general- 
ship is,  indeed,  when  of  a  high  order,  as  is  states- 
manship, more  akin  in  the  assemblage  of  qualities 
which  it  includes,  to  those  required  to  be  united  in 
the  true  mastership  of  a  school,  than  any  other  form 
of  governmental  administration. 

One  of  the  highest  sources,  and  indeed  forms, 
of  tact  in  a  Teacher  consists  in  what  may  be 
called,  talent  in  reading  character.  Some,  although 
otherwise  competent,  are  disqualified  almost  entirely 
for  entering  on  this  noble  profession,  at  least  with 
any  high  success,  because  of  their  want  of  intuitive- 
ness  in  interpreting  character.  While  having  out- 
ward eyes,  they  are  from  inward  blindness  like  per- 
sons of  imperfect  vision,  in  the  management  of  the 
young,  whose  personal  inability  to  comprehend  at  a 
glance  all  their  movements  perpetually  tempts 
those  over  whom  they  are  placed  to  practise  all 
kinds  of  dupery  little  and  great  upon  them.  But 
keen-eyed  perception  of  character,  when  combined 
with  unsuspicious  openness  of  conduct  and  prompt 
executive  habits  of  action,  gives  a  teacher  a  felt 
position,  one  felt  by  his  pupils  as  well  as  by  himself, 
of  almost  unlimited  power  over  them. 

Another  of  the  special  kinds  of  tact  displayed 


182  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

by  the  true  Teacher,  is  seen  in  his  subsequent  treat- 
ment of  the  erring.  Like  his  own  Master  on  high, 
he  is  royal  in  forgiving  and  forgetting  all  past 
offences,  if  he  can  only  see  a  new  spirit  for  the 
future  ;  and  this  he  is  constantly  seeking  in  every 
way  to  originate  and  cherish.  Forgive  means  to 
give  away  or  put  away  out  of  sight  :  so,  he  strives 
like  God  to  "  remember  their  transgressions  no 
more "  :  "  he  upbraids  not  "  ;  but  ever  keeps  the 
way  wide  open,  for  one  who  has  in  any  manner  lost 
his  position  with  him  or  with  the  school,  to  re- 
gain it. 

Many  make  rules,  for  their  selfish  ease,  in  the 
school-room,  which  if  God  were  to  make  for  this 
world  would  empty  it  at  once  of  all  its  inhabitants  : 
they  wiU  receive  or  keep  only  those  who  are  ex- 
emplary at  the  outset.  The  cure  for  the  UDdevel- 
oped  or  wayward  with  them  is,  expulsion,  not  refor- 
mation ;  because  it  costs  patience,  skill,  time  and 
prayer  to  work  effectually  on  such  untoward  mate- 
rials. But  the  genius  and  the  glory  of  Christianity, 
whether  its  energies  are  employed  by  God  or  man, 
consist  in  its  power  to  renew  and  elevate  those  who 
need  its  full  renovating  influence  upon  them.  No 
greater  pleasure  on  earth  belongs  to  the  heritage  of 
a  faithful  earnest  Christian  teacher,  than  that  of  an 
entire  and  lasting  remodelling  of  the  habits  and 
purposes  of  those,  who  before  went  astray.  The 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  183 

school,  like  the  church,  is  after  all  a  moral  hospital, 
where  all  kinds  of  infirmities  and  evils  must  Jbe  ex- 
pected and  brought  under  skilful  curative  treat- 
ment. 

In  connection  with  these  aims  and  characteris- 
tics and  kinds  of  tact,  the  earnest  Christian  teacher, 
who  fears  God  and  loves  man  and  feels  the  pressure 
of  "  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come "  upon  his 
heart,  will  give  effect  to  all  his  requirements  and 
plans  and  varied  forms  of  tact  and  all  the  many 
kinds  of  moral  influence  which  he  may  employ,  by 
the  use  of  the  rod  when  necessary.  But  how  differ- 
ent in  meaning  and  in  effect,  will  his  use  of  physi- 
cal appliances  for  the  good  of  his  pupil  be,  when 
originating  from  such  views  and  pervaded  by  them, 
from  that  of  him,  who  is  fitful  in  his  plans  and  pas- 
sionate in  his  feelings  !  The  true  Christian  Teacher 
punishes  corporeally,  only  as  a  last  resort  :  he 
punishes  because  he  must,  or  else  must  let  his  pupil 
go  on  unchecked  to  ruin.  Alone  with  him,  he  talks 
in  earnest  loving  tones  about  his  delinquencies  and 
their  fearful  results  ;  tells  him  of  his  own  love  for 
him  and  much  more  of  God's  ;  urges  him  to  a  new 
style  of  effort  for  the  future  ;  and  then  punishes 
him  because  he  must  as  his  true  friend,  and  punish- 
ing him  on  principle  does  it  thoroughly  :  every 
stroke  of  the  rod  from  him  being  answered  by  a 


184  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

corresponding  stroke  within,  from  the  conscience  of 
the  cujprit  upon  himself. 

The  government  of  a  good  school  is  so  good  in 
itself  and  in  the  apprehension  of  those  dwelling 
happily  under  it,  that,  like  that  of  our  own  peace- 
ful democratic  government,  no  one  has  any  reason 
for  desiring  to  change  it :  every  thought  of  diso- 
bedience or  even  restiveness  under  it  is  forestalled 
by  its  own  perpetual  pleasurableness.  The  sun- 
shine of  universal  satisfaction  is  spread  everywhere 
around. 

Another  of  the  principal  modes  of  labor  opening 
before  the  true  Teacher  at  all  times,  is 

3dly.  That  of  personal  influence. 

This  is  in  all  men  of  two  kinds,  unconscious  and 
designed.  The  greatest  influence  which  any  man 
exerts  upon  others,  is  that  of  which  he  is  insensible  : 
it  is  so  all-penetrating  and  all-surrounding  like  the 
very  atmosphere,  in  its  action  upon  them,  when 
they  are  in  contact  with  him  or  even  in  his  presence. 
It  is  the  influence  of  character,  of  one  soul  directly 
upon  another  ;  exhaled  in  the  breath  ;  streaming 
through  the  eyes  ;  and  animating  every  motion  ; 
rising  up  out  of  the  deep  and  secret  fountains  of  the 
heart  ;  and  finding  its  way  through  the  most  subtle 
and  invisible  channels,  into  the  hidden  recesses  of 
others'  being.  Well  does  the  very  word  character, 
which  is  but  the  Greek  ^apa/crfy  anglicized,  ex- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  185 

press  the  fact  described.  It  means  alike  a  graver 
and  the  thing  engraved.  Character  has  in  it  the 
fixedness  of  a  stamp  itself  and  the  power  of  a  stamp 
on  others.  Although  life  and  death  are  in  the 
power  of  the  tongue,  yet  actions  speak  louder  than 
words.  The  power  of  example  is  greater  than  the 
power  of  speech.  No  energy  reveals  itself,  whether 
in  repose  or  in  action,  so  instantaneously  as  char- 
acter ;  and  not'more  quickly  is  the  eye  sensitive  to 
light,  than  is  our  whole  being  responsive  in  every 
part,  to  its  influence.  Who  does  not  feel  at  once, 
that  in  the  days  of  Washington  or  Napoleon  a 
speech,  welling  up  with  a  full  overflow  of  thought 
and  feeling  from  their  hearts,  would  have  a  far 
different  effect  upon  their  soldiers,  and  ought  to 
have,  than  the  same  speech  containing  the  same 
good  sense  and  earnest  appeals  if  made  by  a  sub- 
ordinate would  exert.  Every  act  of  a  great  man  is 
ennobled  by  the  elevation  of  his  position.  What 
is  overlooked  as  common  in  others  is  watched  and 
studied,  as  of  special  interest  in  him.  His  table- 
talk  is  reported  ;  his  correspondence  published  ; 
his  manuscripts  and  even  his  signatures  are  bought 
and  sold  ;  his  favorite  haunts  are  visited  ;  and  his 
intimate  friends  are  looked  at  with  admiration,  as 
children  walk  about  with  a  soldier  to  stare  at  him. 
And  so,  words  of  counsel  and  encouragement  from 
a  friend,  compared  with  those  which  are  just  as  true 


186  THE   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

and  wise  and  precious  in  themselves  from  others, 
are  like  luscious  fruit  plucked  ripe  and  fresh  from 
their  native  tree,  compared  with  the  same  fruit 
when  dry  and  stale  from  heat  or  age. 

As  face  answereth  to  face,  so  does  the  heart  of 
man  to  man.  This  is  true,  not  only  of  the  natural 
likeness  of  men  in  body  and  soul  to  each  other, 
wherever  found  ;  but  also  of  the  influence  of  man 
upon  man,  face  upon  face  and  heart  upon  heart,  as 
of  the  sun  on  the  earth  or  the  moon  on  the  sea. 
This  is  the  great,  unappreciated,  unconscious  influ- 
ence exerted  by  every  man,  of  which  the  Bible 
speaks  in  the  declaration,  that  we  are  epistles  known 
and  read  of  all  men,  and  in  the  command  to  let  our 
light  shine,  so  that  others  may  see  our  good  works. 
If  now  the  teacher,  as  he  moves  among  his  schol- 
ars, can  always  appear  to  them  clad,  as  in  a  vest- 
ment of  light,  with  bright  and  pleasing  associations  : 
full  of  the  sweet  majesty  of  thought  and  love  : 
bearing  in  his  face  the  image  of  Heaven  ;  and  him- 
self the  very  exemplar  to  their  conceptions  of  all 
that  they  themselves  would  fain  be  ;  how  will  all  his 
unuttered  wishes  become  at  once  loud-voiced  com- 
mands to  them,  and  his  secret  feelings  find  deliver- 
ance in  their  happy  pursuit  of  the  ends  which  he 
seeks  and  sets  also  before  them,  for  their  attain- 
ment !  The  heart  of  a  child  has  been  naturally 
prepared  by  its  Maker  for  just  this  willing  captivity 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  187 

to  those  who  are  appointed  to  train  it :  in  the  gen- 
eral simplicity  of  its  feelings,  its  easy  trustfulness, 
and  the  conception,  so  universal  with  children,  that 
their  teachers  are  of  vast  attainments  and  infallible 
in  their  decisions  :  a  mistake  better  made  for  its 
influence  on  the  young  than  unmade  ;  and  while 
innocent  in  all  its  bearings  upon  the  objects,  towards 
whom  it  is  extended,  it  is  yet  capable  of  being  em- 
ployed by  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  with  the  high- 
est stimulating  effect  upon  the  young  themselves. 
Confidence  is  as  necessary  in  the  mutual  relations 
of  teacher  and  pupil,  as  in  the  monetary  world  be- 
tween the  borrower  and  the  lender  ;  or,  in  the 
household,  between  husband  and  wife,  parent  and 
child.  Nothing  but  the  direct  abuse  of  this  high- 
est privilege  of  his  position  by  the  teacher  can  pre- 
vent him  from  leading  them  as  he  will. 

As  for  designed  personal  influence,  as  well  as 
that  which  is  unconscious,  there  is  wonderful  scope 
in  the  teacher's  work,  for  all  possible  ingenuity  and 
faithfulness  in  its  exercise.  "  Study  to  show  thy- 
self approved  :  a  workman,  that  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed  : "  this  is  the  sentence  written  by  the  fin- 
ger of  Grod,  which  he  must  write  for  himself  upon 
his  own  banners,  as  he  leads  on  his  pupils  to  glory, 
honor  and  virtue.  Certainly  one  engaged  in  an 
employment,  in  which  he  is  to  touch  perpetually  so 
many  living  springs,  of  character,  fortune  and  fate, 


188  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

in  all  that  he  does  and  all  that  he  leaves  undone, 
can  afford  to  study  well  the  bearings  of  every  move- 
ment which  he  originates  ;  and  to  combine  in  the 
practical  conduct  of  his  plans  the  results  of  all  the 
thought,  experience,  science,  art,  enterprise  and 
religion,  which  he  can  possibly  blend  together. 
The  only  way  in  which  to  appear  to  be  good,  is  ac- 
tually to  be  so  ;  and  of  all  forms  of  goodness  that  is 
of  the  highest  and  most  enduring  power  and  beauty, 
which  flows  forth  in  a  full  stream  from  a  cultivated 
and  commanding  intellect. 

A  man,  besides,  can  do  almost  any  thing  in  this 
world,  who  sets  earnestly  about  it.  The  positive 
qualities  which  characterize  an  earnest  nature,  its 
determination,  hopefulness  and  daring  in  various 
degrees  and  mixtures,  according  to  the  duties  and 
emergencies  that  it  is  to  meet,  are  among  the  speci- 
mens of  human  character  that  every  man  admires 
most,  in  every  other  man.  Hence  the  strange  elec- 
trifying power  of  boldness,  whether  in  opposing  or 
leading  men.  The  earnest  men  are  so  few  in  the 
world,  that  their  very  earnestness  becomes  at  once 
the  badge  of  their  nobility  ;  and  as  men  in  a  crowd 
instinctively  make  room  for  one,  who  seems  eager  to 
force  his  way  through  it ;  so  mankind  everywhere 
open  their  ranks  to  one  who  rushes  zealously  toward 
some  object  lying  beyond  them. 

Next  to  the  great  constraining  power  of  the 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  189 

teacher's  personal  example  of  goodness  in  every 
form,  and  that  of  his  manifest  personal  love  to  the 
pupil,  there  is  no  influence  that  he  can  exert  for  his 
good,  like  that  of  frequent  earnest  conversation 
clear  and  full  and  warm  with  him,  about  all  points 
of  danger  or  duty,  and  every  thing  pertaining  tcT 
his  regression  or  progression,  in  his  course. 

But  there  is  still  another  mode  of  labor,  ift 
which  the  true  Christian  teacher  is  ever  glad  to  em- 
ploy his  skill. 

4thly.  Direct  religious  effort. 

He  feels  in  teaching  youth,  even  his  own  chil- 
dren, that  they  are  all  God's  children  and  not  his 
or  man's,  but  placed  by  his  Father  in  heaven,  sol- 
emnly and  lovingly,  under  his  care  to  be  trained 
for  Him.  A  company  of  his  pupils,  therefore,  al- 
ways stands  before  him  as  a  company  of  immortals, 
in  whose  very  features  he  seems  to  read  these  words, 
in  lines  of  light :  these  are  from  God  ;  and  let  them 
be  to  God. 

Eeligion  is  most  truly  presented  to  mankind,  in 
any  department  of  life  or  action,  when  made  the 
living  in-working  principle  of  every  thought  and 
plan  and  movement  in  it  :  like  the  light,  revealing 
itself  by  revealing  every  thing  else  in  its  true  colors 
and  proportions.  In  the  very  act  of  separating  re- 
ligion from  the  business  and  pleasures  of  life,  as 


190  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

if  a  mere  doctrine  or  form  or  institution  or  con- 
venience, "  its  occupation  is  gone." 

But  while  religion  should  transfuse  its  deep 
sweet  light,  through  not  only  the  whole  character, 
but  also  through  all  the  minutest  parts  of  the  en- 
lire  work  of  the  teacher,  as  the  great  ever-present 
source  of  all  his  ideas,  feelings,  words  and  deeds  ; 
•fttere  should  be  also  direct  specific  effort  made  for 
the  conversion  and  sanctification  of  each  pupil.  Is 
God  a  God  of  law,  in  things  material,  mechanical, 
agricultural,  commercial  and  intellectual  ;  then, 
how  much  more  in  those  highest  of  all  relations, 
for  which  these  others  are  appointed  !  A  man  who 
strives  rightly  for  the  overthrow  of  Satan's  king- 
dom anywhere,  and  most  of  all  among  the  young, 
may  labor  justly  with  more  hope  and  assurance  of 
the  result  desired,  than  he  who  furrows  the  ground 
and  sprinkles  it  with  seed  and  prays  for  the  early 
and  the  latter  rain  :  as  the  interests  involved  in  his 
toil  are,  in  themselves,  so  much  more  precious  on 
the  one  hand,  and  so  much  dearer  on  the  other  to 
God  himself. 

Keligion  is  seldom  presented  to  the  young,  in  its 
true  light  :  as  a  glorious  privilege,  a  delightful 
treasure  and  a  source  of  perpetual  gladness.  All 
the  cheerful,  hopeful,  buoyant  instincts  of  childhood 
are  purposely  set  by  their  Maker,  so  as  in  their 
right  use  to  appreciate  and  crave  the  beauty  of  His 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  191 

works  and  of  himself  and  of  a  religion,  so  full  of  all 
ministries  of  peace  and  pleasure  to  its  intelligent 
possessor.  But  how  is  our  great  good  Father  above 
made  to  appear  distant  and  cold  and  forbidding  to 
the  young  !  and  how  is  love  to  him  spoken  of  as  a 
mere  duty  !  and  how  are  all  its  most  precious  quick- 
ening truths  converted  into  a  mass  of  bare,  porten- 
tous doctrines  to  their  apprehension  ! 

It  is  manifest  therefore  in  what  way  a  school  or 
a  college  is  to  get  and  to  keep  a  deservedly  high 
reputation.  Its  only  policy  should  be  the  policy  of 
absolute  merit.  With  simple  reliance  upon  God 
alone,  its  whole  effort  should  be  to  erect  a  lofty  pile 
of  good  deeds  in  its  work  upon  the  earth  :  such  as 
the  great  Judge  himself  shall  pronounce  to  be  good. 
The  highest  scrutiny  for  which  one  can  prepare 
himself,  the  only  one  of  which  he  should  have  any 
apprehension,  is  God's.  Not  he  that  commendeth 
himself  is  approved,  but  whom  the  Lord  commend- 
eth, and  they  who  seek  not  the  honor  which  comes 
from  God  only  can  be  accepted  of  Him  neither  in 
their  faith  nor  in  their  works.  The  idea  is  quite 
common,  not  only  in  matters  of  business,  politics 
and  fashion,  but  also  of  education  and  religion,  that 
there  is  after  all  some  pathway  of  success  beyond 
and  beside  that  of  striving  in  all  things  to  please 
God.  Would  not  Christ,  were  He  to  appear  on 
earth  again,  say  everywhere  now  with  sadness,  as 


192  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

when  He  was  here,  Oh  ye  of  little  faith  !  and  with 
the  same  intense  irony  as  then,  "  when  the  son  of 
Man  cometh  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  " 
The  mass  of  men  still  expect  to  prosper  best,  with- 
out God.  They  do  not  believe  in  his  providence 
over  them,  or  in  his  presence  among  them.  And 
how  is  that  sweet  conception  of  him,  as  a  Father  : 
the  brightest  and  best  of  all  the  thoughts,  that  can 
ever  be  taken  into  the  human  heart,  and  breathe 
out  its  perfume  there  :  utterly  lost  to  them,  as  if 
they  had  no  inner  sense  to  which  its  beauty  could 
be  revealed  ! 

Nothing  can  take  the  place  in  the  management 
of  our  educational  institutions  and  appliances,  one 
and  all,  of  work  :  honest,  earnest,  skilful,  constant 
work.  How  contemptible  is  reliance,  in  the  place 
of  such  work,  on  public  examinations,  for  which  to 
the  neglect  of  all  scientific  treatment  of  his  real 
interests,  the  student  is  so  often  stuffed  and  crammed 
with  zeal,  only  for  the  sake  of  the  desired  result  to 
the  institution,  instead  of  any  absolute  profit  to 
him,  who  is  in  fact  sacrificed  himself  while  being 
carefully  tricked  for  show  to  others  !  The  object  is 
to  make  capital  of  him  for  the  future  benefit  of  the 
institution,  instead  of  developing  him  perpetually, 
to  the  highest  degree  possible,  as  a  thinking  active 
being  of  many  and  great  natural  faculties  and  re- 
sources. Public  exhibitions  also  are,  on  the  same 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  193 

principle,  quite  in  vogue  in  many  places  ;  in  which 
handsome  declamation,  prepared  by  mere  imitative 
drill,  and  compositions,  abundantly  interlined,  en- 
larged and  adorned  with  all  sorts  of  superadded  ex- 
cellences by  zealous  teachers,  are  prepared  for  the 
glorification  of  the  institution  and  its  officers,  in  the 
eyes  of  superficial  observers  :  which  yet  are  all 
shams,  since  they  do  not  indicate  at  all  the  real 
mental  condition  of  the  pupil,  and  since  therefore 
he  could  not,  if  left  to  himself,  produce  any  such 
speech  or  composition  again.  Skill  in  composition 
is  one  of  the  last  attainments  of  an  educated  mind  ; 
and,  therefore,  when  it  appears  in  early  youth,  be- 
trays at  once  its  foreign  origin. 

The  results  of  true  teaching  will  be  those  of 
high  advancement  to  every  pupil,  individually,  of 
whatever  style  of  disposition  or  grade  of  character, 
that  comes  under  its  influence.  In  no  employment 
is  there  greater  versatility,  in  fact,  in  the  objects 
and  ends  of  the  toil  expended  ;  and  in  none  is  a 
more  varied  and  elastic  style  of  adaptation  to  those 
ends  demanded.  A  true  teacher  never  settles  down 
upon  average  modes  of  dealing  with  his  pupils. 
Such  men,  and  they  are  numerous  in  all  kinds  of 
business,  are  themselves  but  average-men.  Often, 
if  not  well-nigh  always,  the  medium-grade  of  tal- 
ents and  attainments  is  selected,  both  at  school 
and  at  college,  as  the  uniform  gauge  for  the  amount 


194  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

of  toil  and  rate  of  progress  appointed  for  all. 
Those,  accordingly,  of  maximum -power  :  made  of 
God  to  be  the  very  ornaments  of  the  institution,  as 
in  after-life  of  society  itself :  are  either  left  to  the 
waywardness  of  their  own  untutored  impulses,  or, 
while  being  open  at  more  points  of  their  nature  to 
assault  than  others,  are  exposed  by  utter  neglect  of 
their  special  wants,  as  if  on  system,  to  evil  influ- 
ences tending  powerfully  to  disorganize  all  the  in- 
ward elements  of  their  mental  and  moral  vitality. 
Those  of  minimum-force  of  mind,  who  need  to  be 
aroused  and  cheered  and  inspired,  rather,  than  like 
the  preceding,  to  be  provided  with  adequate  work 
and  to  be  guided  skilfully  and  earnestly  into  proper 
directions,  for  variety  of  effort  and  height  of  achieve- 
ment :  these  are  abandoned,  on  the  cold  and  heart- 
less plea  of  necessity,  to  their  own  habitual  self-dis- 
couragement. The  same  requisitions  are  made  of 
them  as  are  made  of  others,  whom  God  has  made 
capable  of  doing  much  more  than  they. 

It  may  be,  in  some  respects,  convenient  for  self- 
ish minds,  to  equalize  their  work,  and  so  make  it 
mechanical  instead  of  artistic,  by  resorting  to  short- 
hand processes,  and  doing  things  by  average.  But 
is  it  right  ?  A  school  should  be  so  conducted,  that 
no  one  in  it  is  ever  at  a  loss  to  know,  what  to  do 
next,  and  no  one  ever  ceases  to  feel,  that  he  is  un- 


THE   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  195 

der  the  pressure  of  immediate  necessity  and  of  im- 
mediate obligation. 

Perpetual  effort  should  be  the  ever-present  rule 
of  action  for  each  :  effort  for  such  things  as  each 
severally  needs  ;  and  perpetual  victory  should  be 
the  happy  history  of  one  and  all.  It  is  the  rule  in 
God's  kingdom  that  "  of  those  to  whom  much  has 
been  given  shall  be  much  required  ;  "  and  the  rule 
really  enforced  by  the  true  Christian  teacher,  if  not 
always  observed  and  watched  by  the  pupil  in  its 
workings,  will  be  the  same.  One  of  abilities  de- 
cidedly superior  to  the  others,  should  for  example 
not  only  recite  in  three  or  four  lessons,  as  Latin, 
Greek  and  Mathematics,  &c.,  like  the  rest  of  those 
with  whom  he  is  otherwise  wrongly  classified  ;  but 
in  another  recitation  also,  with  another  class  pur- 
suing some  high  English  study  or  some  Modern 
Language.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  working  such 
a  varied  system  of  appliances  and  demands,  according 
to  the  varied  talents  of  the  pupils,  on  a  large  and 
free  scale,  and  with  great  pleasure  and  profit  to  both 
teacher  and  pupil.  It  is  impossible  to  see  how  one 
can  do  his  daily  work  without  it,  so  as  to  satisfy  either 
any  high  ideas  of  educational  art  or  of  educational 
duty.  Those  whom  God  has  made  leaders  in  mind, 
should  be  so  developed  at  school  and  at  home  as  to 
fulfil  their  destiny,  from  the  very  first,  among  their 
associates  young  or  old.  Their  endowments  have 


196  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

not  come  by  chance  from  God,  and  it  is  left  for 
men  to  say  that  they  shall  not  be  in  vain.  But 
how  are  boys  of  genius  everywhere  sacrificed  both 
at  home  and  at  school  by  foolish  flattery,  by  weak, 
blind,  educational  treatment  and  even  by  such  piti- 
ful theories,  as,  that  smart  children  must  be  held 
back  lest  they  die  before  their  time,  and  that  genius 
will  carve  its  own  way  without  the  necessity  of 
much  early  discipline,  or  of  much  toil  in  subsequent 
life.  As  the  world  goes,  it  is  about  as  unfortunate, 
with  here  and  there  a  noble  exception,  for  a  youth 
to  possess  native  genius,  as  for  one  of  the  other  sex 
to  be  gifted  with  great  physical  beauty.  By  posi- 
tive abuse  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  under-develop- 
ment  on  the  other,  he  never  acquires  or  early  loses 
the  spirit  of  work  and  all  zeal  for  mental  progress 
and  becomes,  instead,  the  victim  of  a  ruinous  spirit 
of  self-conceit,  destructive  of  all  thoughts  of  toil, 
all  intellectual  conquests,  all  usefulness  and  all  real 
benevolence.  The  atmosphere  of  a  true  educa- 
tional establishment  should  be  and  will  be  genial 
and  tropical  :  exactly  adapted  to  force  onwards  all 
high  growths.  Every  thing  good  will  break  out  in 
it  into  larger  fulness  of  life  :  what  is  great  will 
become  greater  ;  while  every  thing  evil  in  it  will 
be  subordinated  and  mellowed  and  under  the  accom- 
panying dews  of  divine  grace  changed  into  forms  of 
varied  beauty  and  excellence. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN     TEACHER.  197 

It  is  right  for  parents  and  guardians  to  expect 
great  and  continued  improvement  in  their  sons  and 
wards,  at  school  and  at  college.  They  should  ex- 
pect more  than  they  do  ;  and  the  higher  the  class  of 
institution,  the  more  should  they  expect  and  claim. 
Here,  certainly,  is  not  only  a  fair  field  for  close,  vig- 
ilant, perpetual  scrutiny  ;  but  it  is  demanded  by 
the  real  interests  of  all  parties.  Both  pupils  and 
teachers  should  be  made  to  feel,  that  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  a  multitude  of  eyes,  burning  with  in- 
tense interest  in  what  they  do. 

Such  characteristics  as  these  should  begin  to 
show  themselves  at  once,  and  in  ever  enlarging  de- 
grees of  strength  and  beauty,  in  each  pupil :  a  new 
sense  of  order  and  a  new  love  for  it ;  a  new  spirit  of 
work  ;  higher  aims  and  purposes  and  plans  ;  loftier 
ideals  of  attainment ;  increase  in  daily  happiness  ; 
and  greater  refinement  of  feeling,  both  as  a  matter 
of  artistic  sentiment,  and  of  a  deeper  moral  sense. 
The  nobler  the  style  of  boy  by  nature,  the  more 
should  such  intellectual  and  moral  fruitage  be  re- 
quired, and  the  more  regularly  under  true  educational 
culture  ;  while  the  more  backward  is  any  pupil,  the 
more  should  we  secretly  pity  him  and  labor  patiently 
and  continually  for  his  advancement  :  regarding  his 
backwardness,  as  in  nearly  every  case  it  accords  with 
the  truth  to  do,  as  the  result  of  voluntary,  although 
unconscious  torpidity  of  mind  on  his  part  :  a  dul- 


198  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER. 

ness  self-imposed  by  a  will  hitherto  unawakened, ' 
because  hitherto  unsolicited  or  unpressed  to  work  ; 
or  of  early  abuse,  stifling  its. first   beginnings  of 
growth,  by  ridicule,  or  neglect,  or  at  least  want  of 
earnest,  loving  kindness  and  care  in  some  form. 

But  how  different  from  the  views  here  expressed, 
are  those  represented  in  the  current  style  of  educa- 
tion !  According  to  these  it  is  of  no  advantage  to 
the  world,  that  there  are  different  orders  of  talent 
among  youth,  and  that  young  giants  appear  among 
them  in  advance,  as  among  men  in  the  higher  em- 
ployments of  life.  It  is  as  if  one  were  called  to 
train  a  multitude  of  quadrupeds  theoretically  for 
their  own  best  development,  and,  instead  of  adapt- 
ing the  style  of  education  assumed,  to  the  size 
strength  and  capacities  of  each,  he  were  to  put  all, 
of  whatever  stature  or  form,  into  one  style  of 
harness,  and  to  require  of  all,  of  whatever  step  or 
gait,  one  uniform  style  of  movements.  Is  it  any 
wonder,  that  so  many  feel  utterly  disgusted  with 
the  prevailing  modes  of  instruction  of  whatever 
name,  as  well  as  with  their  results  ;  while  others 
laugh  at  the  whole  thing  as  a  pitiable  though  osten- 
tatious farce. 

Does  any  one  in  conclusion  ask,  what  is  to  en- 
courage and  sustain  a  teacher,  of  the  highest  aims 
and  efforts,  in  his  career  of  constant,  noble  toil  ? 
Faith  in  God  !  this,  and  this  alone  !  Leaning  on 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    TEACHER.  199 

this  staff,  given  to  him  from  above,  he  can  walk 
triumphantly,  through  flood  and  fire,  onward  and 
upward,  in  abounding  usefulness.  The  one  man  in 
modern  society,  little  as  he  may  be  so  recognized, 
that  combines  in  his  own  person  the  offices  of  the 
prophet,  the  priest  and  the  king  of  ancient  days,  is 
such  a  teacher,  walking  with  God,  and  ever  looking 
up  to  him,  and  working  for  him  with  all  his  might 
of  body  and  of  soul. 


IV. 


THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  SCHOLAR. 


IV. 

THE   TRUE  CHRISTIAN  SCHOLAR. 

THE  word  school,  Greek  <r%oX?7,  meaning  leis- 
ure, repeats  itself  under  various  euphonic  modifi- 
cations, in  all  the  languages  of  the  civilized  world. 
And  leisure  it  is,  or  freedom  from  manual  labor,  that 
those  devoted  to  learning  enjoy  ;  and  freedom,  not 
only  from  the  mere  care  of  the  body,  which  makes 
life  to  most  men  such  a  series  of  burdens,  but  also 
from  a  multitude  of  other  dusty  experiences,  con- 
nected with  a  material  and  sensual  heritage  of  the 
world.  The  classic  sense  of  the  word,  as  of  the 
word  scholar,  had  reference  to  adults  :  to  those  who 
gathered,  from  principles  of  elective  affinity,  around 
the  great  inquirers  and  reasoners  of  elder  days.  The 
Latin  word,  ludus,  which  was  also  used  like  schola 
to  denote  a  school,  and  which  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  transferred  to  any  other  language,  signifies 
sport,  games,  strife  :  presenting  the  idea  of  a  gym- 
nasium, where  earnest  combatants  struggled  with 
each  other  for  the  mastery.  The  "contentio  cor- 
poris "  of  the  one  corresponded  to  the  "  contentio 


204  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

animi"  of  the  other.  The  view  of  the  scholar's 
life  in  the  one  word  is  objective  ;  while  in  the  other 
it  is  subjective. 

The  name  scholar  has  ever  been  a  name  of  honor 
in  the  world,  and  he  who  has  been  worthy  to  bear 
it  has  been  sure  of  respect  in  all  ages  and  countries. 
The  priests  who  ruled  in  the  inner  world  of  faith,  in 
the  first  beginnings  of  historic  development,  as 
among  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  the  Celts,  were 
the  scholars  of  those  times.  The  thinkers,  who,  in 
after  ages  in  Greece  and  Kome,  kept  open  court  in 
the  temple  of  reason  "for  crowds  of  admiring  attend- 
ants, and  sent  forth  from  their  secret  place  of  power 
all  the  vital  influences  and  energies  that  originated 
within  the  bosom  of  society  in  their  day,  were  the 
men  of  thoroughly  trained  habits  of  mind  :  the  men 
of  vast  scholarly  powers  of  exploration  and  discovery, 
for  their  age,  in  the  realms  of  truth.  How  much  of  the 
intellectual  history  of  Greece,  full  of  all  great  things 
as  was  the  stream,  flowed  forth  from  the  fountains 
of  thought  in  Plato's  and  Aristotle's  heart !  Schol- 
ars were  often,  in  those  days  of  thunderous  strife, 
appointed  also  to  muster  the  hosts  of  war.  Pericles, 
Demosthenes,  Thucydides  and  Xenophon,  Cicero 
and  Caesar,  were  all  generals. 

The  structure  of  ancient  humanity  was  reared 
on  the  basis  of  physical  strength  and  martial  bra- 
very. Giants,  heroes,  chieftains  and  kings  then 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  205 

ruled  the  world.  Modern  society,  so  far  as  it  is 
normal  and  Christian  in  its  type,  is  all  upreared  on 
the  great  doctrine  of  right,  not  might :  a  mental 
and  moral  basis.  Thought  not  force  now  holds  the 
sceptre.  The  paraphernalia  of  power  and  its  blazon- 
ry are  put  away  out  of  sight,  or  gazed  at,  wherever 
they  are  found,  only  as  the  tawdry  relics  of  the  past. 
Power  itself  is  latent,  like  the  great  invisible  forces 
of  nature,  but  all  the  more  real  and  mighty.  Schol- 
ars are  the  nobles  that  now  walk  the  world,  without 
indeed  any  regalia,  but  bearing  the  stamp  of  Di- 
vinity upon  their  brow.  The  ari'stocracy  of  mind  is  the 
only  aristocracy,  that  envious  Time  cannot  destroy. 
The  common  classes  once  everywhere  looked 
askance  at  men  of  study  and  learning,  as  those, 
who,  in  lacking  stout,  hard  hands  like  themselves, 
were  thought  to  have  of  necessity  but  weak  heads  : 
being  regarded  but  as  accomplished  drones,  who  were 
willing  to  see  others  gather  the  honey  of  life,  that 
they  might  dwell  in  ease  and  consume  it.  But  ed- 
ucated men  have  so  evidently  carved  out  all  the  fea- 
tures of  modern  society,  and  led  the  nations  forward, 
step  by  step,  on  the  great  highway  of  human  prog- 
ress, that  every  mouth  is  now  silent  against  them 
from  conviction.  The  study,  the  laboratory,  the 
office,  are  the  places  where  the  modern  rulers  of  the 
world  sit  in  state.  And  yet,  strange  to  say,  the 
school,  the  great  original  fountain  of  all  the  educa- 


206  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

tion  of  the  age,  the  spot  whence  its  quickening  in- 
fluences all  flow,  is  practically  regarded  almost  with 
indifference  by  the  mass  of  educated,  and  more  still 
of  even  Christian  men. 

What  a  magnificent  procession  of  worthies,  each 
bearing  a  serene  front  and  holy  light  in  his  eyes, 
would  the  great  army  of  scholars  in  all  ages  and 
countries  present,  could  they  pass  together  before 
us  !  What  a  galaxy  of  stars  and  of  constellations 
of  stars  in  the  firmament  of  History  !  Numbers 
without  number  of  such  men,  in  the  church,  as 
Moses,  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians, 
Solomon,  the  wisest  of  men,  Paul,  brought  up  at  the 
feet  of  Gamaliel,  Augustine,  Jerome,  Wickliffe,  Lu- 
ther, Calvin,  Pascal,  Fenelon,  Cudworth,  Larned, 
Chillingworth,  Edwards,  Chalmers,  Neander  ;  and, 
in  the  world  at  large,  as  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero, 
Caesar,  Bacon,  Leibnitz,  Milton,  Newton,  Porson, 
Herschel,  Berzelius,  La  Place,  Cuvier,  Gesenius, 
Niebuhr,  Passow,  Bopp,  Grimm,  Liebig  and  Agas- 
siz,  in  all  the.  departments  of  science,  literature, 
history  and  language. 

Will  it  not  be  both  pleasant  and  profitable  to 
consider,  what  are  the  characteristics  of  the  true 
scholar,  and  in  what  way  he  can  best  promote  his 
own  highest  development. 

I.  His  characteristics.     By  these  are  meant, 
1st.  His  loves  and  pleasures. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  207 

2d.  His  liberties. 

3d.  His  habits. 

1st.  And  what  are  his  loves  and  pleasures  ? 

He  delights  in  solitude.  He  is  freed  in  it  from 
the  interruptions,  temptations  and  tumults  of  life  : 
secluded  from  the  noisy  world  without,  so  as  to  be 
all  the  more  free  to  range  with  giant-steps  the  bright 
world  of  thought  within.  He  is  least  alone  when 
most  alone  ;  for  then,  as  Plato  beautifully  defines 
thinking,  "  he  holds  sweat  dialogue  with  himself ;  " 
or  goes  forth  through  the  golden  gates  of  the  past, 
which  open  of  their  own  accord  before  him,  to  greet 
the  venerated  men  of  all  ages  that  stand  waiting, 
with  crowns  on  their  heads  and  censers  in  their 
hands,  to  minister  to  his  gratification.  The  closet 
and  the  study  :  these  are  the  two  corners  of  Eden 
still  left  to  this  world,  and  the  two  radiant  points 
from  which  the  light  of  Heaven  most  streams  out, 
over  all  the  earth. 

But  it  is  of  the  scholar's  pleasure  in  his  own  acts 
and  states,  rather  than  in  any  thing  pertaining  to  his 
environment,  of  which  we  design  here  to  speak. 

(1.)  He  delights  in  gaining  knowledge. 

There  is  great  pleasure  in  mere  acquisition. 
The  very  faculty  itself,  as  well  as  the  impulse  to 
use  it,  now  wasted  by  so  many  upon  the  pursuit  of 
money  and  power,  were  made  a  part  of  our  original 
mental  constitution,  on  purpose  that  we  "should  em- 


208  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

ploy  them  in  securing  the  riches  of  the  mind  and  of 
the  heart. 

The  more  that  one  increases  in  knowledge,  the 
wider  becomes  at  once  his  conscious  relationship  to 
the  universe  within  which  he  is  placed,  and  on 
which  he  is  to  act.  The  greater  therefore  is  his 
sense  of  the  order,  worth  and  beauty  of  all  that  is 
outward  to  himself,  and  which  was  constituted  what 
it  is,  in  advance,  with  direct  reference  to  the  capa- 
bilities and  wants  of  the  soul ;  and  the  higher  and 
the  broader  becomes  his  own  consciousness  of  himself, 
as  the  appointed  lord  of  this  lower  world.  "  He  that 
increaseth  knowledge,"  saith  Solomon,  "increaseth 
strength  ;  "  or,  as  Lord  Bacon  hath  it,  "  knowledge 
is  power."  To  gain  new  knowledge  is  one  of  the 
highest  pleasures  of  life.  The  constant  excitement 
of  the  eye  and  the  ear,  and  of  the  whole  sensational 
nature  of  childhood,  in  the  reception  of  new  ideas 
from  every  object  in  every  quarter,  is  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  that  spontaneous,  joyous  hilarity, 
with  which  early  youth  is  everywhere  so  radiant. 
Not  only  "  is  the  world  ruled  by  ideas,"  as  is  often 
said  ;  but  ideas  -are  also  the  well-spring  of  all  the 
joy  or  sorrow  of  our  mortal  life. 

Were  more  men  addicted  to  acquiring  new  ideas 
through  all  their  life,  in  grand  and  glowing  succes- 
sion, so  many  would  not  say  as  now  that  in  youth 
they  had  their  largest  experience  of  pleasure.  He 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  209 

who  desires  to  be  a  child  again,  pays  certainly  a 
poor  compliment  to  the  quality  either  of  his  mind 
itself,  or  of  his  general  treatment  of  it.  Ideas  ever 
new  and  ever  great  are  obtainable  in  whatever  di- 
rection one  turns  his  eyes,  or  his  feet,  to  obtain  them. 
It  is  one  of  the  greatest  results  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion that,  while  money  can  be  obtained  in  all  ages 
by  but  few,  and  is  in  every  age  obtained  by  far  more 
than  ever  make  a  right  use  of  it,  the  treasures  of 
knowledge  are  made  open  to  all,  in  forms  and  ways 
that  are  of  perpetual  recurrence,  and  at  prices  that 
can  be  met  even  from  the  shrivelled  purses  of  the 
poor. 

That  higher  style  of  mental  toil  and  attainment, 
which  we  call  scholarship,  may  be  of  two  kinds  : 
general  and  special.  General  scholarship  presents 
one  of  its  chief  charms,  in  the  wider  view  which  it 
furnishes  of  the  great  harmony  of  analogies  prevail- 
ing in  all  sciences  and  knowledges,  as  constituting 
one  vast  sisterhood  of  mutually  according  witnesses, 
that  they  all  had  a  common  origin  in  the  will  of  one 
glorious  Divine  Being,  and  all  have  a  common  end 
in  their  benefits  and  uses  to  his  creature,  man.  It 
has  also  the  advantage  of  giving  greater  breadth  to 
the  development  of  the  mind  itself,  greater  range  to 
its  researches,  and  greater  volume  to  its  thoughts. 
Special  minute  scholarship  also  has  its  own  individ- 
ual pleasures  ;  and  they  are  great.  The  field  of  its 


210  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

operations  is  infinitely  diversified  ;  and  the  subdi- 
visions of  which  earnest  mental  labor  is  capable  are 
endless.  There  is  enough  wonder  in  any  minute 
department  of  investigation  in  nature,  science,  art 
or  language,  to  occupy  fully  one  life-time  after  an- 
other spent  in  Herculean  toil.  The  greatest  beau- 
ties of  art  are  those  which  are  minutest :  the  great- 
est marvels  of  nature  are  those  which  are  micro- 
scopic ;  and  the  greatest  blessings  of  life  are  those 
momentary  benefits,  the  aggregate  of  which  makes 
such  a  broad  stream  of  bounty,  ever  flowing  unto  all 
men  from  the  great  heart  of  God.  "He  that  is 
faithful  in  that  which  is  least  is  faithful  also  in 
much."  Nowhere  is  this  more  true  than  in  the 
realms  of  scholarship.  Nicety  of  knowledge  is  as  es- 
sential an  idea  of  a  scholar,  as  nicety  of  execution  is 
of  an  artist.  And,  as  the  Divine  mind  took  great 
pleasure  in  constructing  little  things,  as  is  evident 
in  the  accuracy  and  harmony  of  their  most  minute 
adaptations  and  uses,  and  in  all  their  careful  elab- 
oration of  form  and  color,  in  reference  to  his  own 
sense  of  beauty  or  that  of  a  happy  few  of  His  intel- 
ligent creatures,  who  should  at  some  future  day  of 
advanced  knowledge,  as  now,  inspect  them  with 
wonder ;  so,  the  finite  mind,  when  most  like  the 
Divine  in  intellect  and  character,  is  most  fond  of 
searching  the  hidden  riches  of  His  wisdom  and  good- 
ness, and  most  appreciative  of  them  when  found. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  211 

It  is  no  part  of  real  greatness,  God's  or  man's,  to 
slight  what  is  little,  and  invisible  either  on  account 
of  its  minuteness  or  of  its  vast  distance  from  the 
view.  That  proof  of  genius,  of  which  we  so  often 
hear,  carelessness  about  trifles,  while  rejoicing  in  a 
vaulting,  brilliant  style  of  mind,  in  certain  specula- 
tive or  imaginative  directions,  is  but  a  proof  of  a 
perverse  heart,  neglecting  its  duty  because  of  its 
irksome  details  ;  or  of  a  perverted  intellect,  expect- 
ing to  gain  the  desired  result  without  heeding  God's 
appointed  law  of  work,  which  is  :  that,  according  to 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  product,  must  be  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  labor  expended.  What 
greater  folly,  than  to  expect  to  have  the  whole  with- 
out having  each  of  its  component  parts. 

The  pleasure  of  investigating  minute  facts, 
principles,  relations  and  uses  is  very  great.  It  has 
in  it  the  excitement  of  busy  research,  and  also  of 
perpetual,  ever-widening  discovery.  It  furnishes, 
besides,  deep,  philosophic  gratification  in  the  larger 
comprehension  afforded  by  it  of  the  analogies  of 
nature  and  of  providence  for  one's  self,  and  in 
the  ability  obtained,  to  verify  or  modify  the  theories 
of  science,  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  human 
knowledge,  and  to  multiply  the  many  uses  which 
man  can  make  of  his  own  powers  or  time,  or  of  the 
outer  universe  to  which  all  his  functions  of  action 
and  enjoyment  are  so  exquisitely  adapted.  The 


212  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

difference  between  modern  and  ancient  scholarship, 
as  between  ancient  and  modern  philosophy,  lies  in 
this  one  thing  chiefly  :  the  greater  minuteness  of 
the-' modern,  and  so  its  greater  universality.  Super- 
ficial theorizing  took  the  place,  in  the  ancient,  of 
close,  repeated,  patient  investigation,  in  the  modern. 
And  the  reason  why  men  now-a-days  have  so  many 
more  comforts  and  appliances  of  every  kind,  per- 
sonal and  social,  than  those  of  former  times,  lies  very 
largely  in  the  fact  of  the  revelation  which  minute 
modern  scholarship  has  made  of  the  hidden  ele- 
ments, resources,  energies  and  agencies  laid  by  in 
the  great  store-house  of  nature,  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  shall  search  after  them  and  find  them. 

(2.)  He  delights  in  finding  truth,  as  such. 

Truth  is  the  natural  and  appointed  aliment  of 
the  human  mind.  To  an  angelic  mind,  or  a  hu- 
man one  in  its  true  normal  state,  all  truth  of  every 
sort  would  seem,  whenever  found,  but  a  part  of 
God's  image  of  Himself  in  his  works.  The  charm  of 
searching  for  any  truth  is  to  such  a  mind  the  charm 
of  seeking  for  something,  anew,  that  has  come 
from  His  heart  and  hand,  and  therefore  is  full  of  the 
beauty  of  his  skill  and  love.  And  if  the  undevout 
astronomer  be  truly  mad,  what  must  be  said  of  the 
scholar,  who,  by  turning  away  from  God,  makes  all 
his  wisdom  utter  foolishness,  both  in  His  sight  and 
in  fact  ?  Much  of  the  scholarship  of  the  world  has 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  213 

been  indeed  hitherto,  under  evil  preparatory  in- 
fluences, not  only  in  a  negative,  but  also  in  a  posi- 
tive way,  ungodly.  Multitudes  of  students,  like  so 
many  possessing  wealth  and  power,  have  used  this 
world  as  abusing  it :  turning  what  are  properly  but 
means  to  its  great  ends,  into  ends  of  action  for 
themselves. 

The  habits  and  tastes  engendered  by  true 
scholarship  are  favorable  to  the  study  and  recep- 
tion of  evangelical  truth  as  such.  The  scholar 
has  indeed  a  noble  preparation  for  high,  religious 
thought,  and  for  delicate  refined  sensibility  to 
every  thing  fitted  to  lead  him  to  the  adoration, 
worship  and  service  of  God.  God  delights  in  true 
earnest  thinkers.  All  his  forms  and  degrees  of  ap- 
proach to  his  creatures,  in  his  works  and  word,  his 
providence  and  grace,  are  alike  accommodated  to 
the  supposition,  that  they  are  to  be  active  and  true 
and  earnest  in  their  modes  of  understanding  and  ap- 
preciating Him  and  his  ways.  The  whole  universe  is 
indeed,  rightly  understood,  but  an  universe  of  mul- 
titudinous appeals,  in  high  and  bright  material  forms, 
to  thought.  If  "it  has  pleased  God  to  save  men 
by  the  foolishness  of  preaching,"  it  has  not  been  by 
choosing  fools  to  be  his  preachers.  Those  to  whom, 
having  arisen  and  stood  upon  their  feet :  according 
to  the  word  sent  unto  the  prophet  :  "  arise  and 
stand  upon  thy  feet,  and  I  will  speak  to  thee  :" 


214  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

He  has  spoken  words  during  the  ages,  that  they 
should  speak  again  for  him  to  all  men,  have  ever 
been  the  greatest  men  of  their  times,  in  genius  and 
learning  and  thought :  men  like  Moses  and  Solo- 
mon and  David  and  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  and  Paul 
and  John  :  such  men  as  mankind  would  have  call- 
ed golden-mouthed,  even  had  they  stood  up  in  their 
own  names,  alone,  in  their  day  and  generation.  The 
highest  style  of  piety  can  be  exhibited  only  in  a 
mind  of  the  largest  dimensions  for  power  and  at- 
tainments ;  and,  as  faith  rests  upon  reason,  so  does 
all  lofty  religious  energy  and  joy  upon  high  strong 
thought.  The  quality  of  the  piety,  exhibited  by 
such  men  as  Paul  and  Edwards,  presupposes  by 
necessity  the  quality  of  intellect,  with  which  it  is 
always  found  connected.  The  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  developing  scholarship,  has  been  quite 
as  remarkable,  as  in  developing  public  reforms,  en- 
terprise, art,  or  civilization,  in  any  of  its  specific 
departments.  "  The  living  creatures/'  now  astir 
within  the  wheels  of  all  our  modern  movements,  are 
the  busy,  earnest,  studious  thinkers  of  the  day. 

The  true  scholar  will  be  then,  legitimately,  ob- 
servant, appreciative  and  studious  of  all  the  great 
aspects,  bearings  and  issues  of  evangelic  truth  ; 
and,  just  in  proportion  as  one  is  entitled  to  the  high 
designation  of  a  scholar,  will  he  exhibit  subjectively, 
in  spirit  and  aim,  an  exact  correspondence  with  the 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  215 

influences  and,  claims  of  all  objective  truth  with 
which  he  comes  into  definite  relations.  He  is  in- 
tellectually at  one  with  the  universe  as  it  is,  re- 
ceptively, in  welcoming  its  lessons,  influences  and 
benefits  to  his  heart,  as  was  God,  actively,  in  mak- 
ing it  for  his  own  pleasure  and  for  the  good  of  his 
creatures.  The  truth  it  is,  that  he  everywhere 
longs  to  find  :  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  :  in  na- 
ture, history,  art,  or  life,  and  throughout  the  wide 
range  of  the  present,  past  or  future.  And  how  de- 
lightful is  it  to  find  the  truth  !  The  discovery  is 
substantial  and  abiding.  The  mind  has  now  some- 
thing on  which  to  repose  with  confidence  :  it  has 
obtained  a  new  stepping-stone  on  which  to  go  up 
higher  ;  and  it  has  a  deep,  glad  sense  that  its  great 
powers  have  now  found  their  true  use,  and  its 
highest  efforts  their  true  end.  The  human  mind  is 
as  plainly  constructed  for  the  pursuit,  apprehension 
and  enjoyment  of  truth,  as  is  the  eye  to  bathe  in 
floods  of  light,  or  as  are  the  chambers  of  the  ear  to 
reverberate  with  sound. 

3dly.  He  delights  in  using  his  own  powers. 

So  exquisitely  has  God  fashioned  both  the  body 
and  the  mind,  that  the  mere  use  of  their  powers, 
without  reference  to  the  object  on  which  they  are 
employed,  gives  great  pleasure.  What  gladness 
does  simple  motion  give  to  the  bird,  the  quad- 
ruped, the  insect  and  the  fish  !  Which  of  them 


216  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

all  is  still,  except  for  short  periods  of  necessary 
repose  ?  The  more  complicated  '  the  structure 
of  an  animal,  the  higher  the  style  of  his  capacities, 
and  the  broader  the  range  of  his  being  ;  so  much 
the  higher  will  be  his  enjoyment,  in  the  natural 
use  of  his  functions.  From  the  lowest  forms  of 
vermicular  or  larva  life,  through  all  the  most  varied 
complexities  of  animal  organism,  up  to  man,  as 
rises  the  scale  of  multiplex  energies  and  uses,  in  the 
construction  of  the  being,  so  rises,  correspond- 
ingly, the  scale  of  his  pleasures  in  quality,  variety 
and  number.  Man,  as  he  stands  at  the  summit  of 
the  ascending  series,  in  the  fulness  and  finish  of  his 
powers,  should  also  appear,  and  in  his  completely 
developed  state  will  appear,  as  the  crown  of  all 
God's  works  on  earth,  not  only  in  the  height  and 
breadth  of  his  capacities,  but  also  in  the  overflow- 
ing abundance  of  his  pleasures. 

The  true  scholar  in  his  highest  form  is  the 
Christian  scholar ;  and  his  proper  appointed  por- 
tion of  good  on  earth  would  be  most  of  it  sacri- 
ficed, if  the  temper  of  his  heart  and  the  aims  of 
his  life  were  not  divine.  The  scholarship  of  the 
present  day  is  far  more  Christian  than  in  any  pre- 
ceding age  ;  although,  with  remarkable  uniformity, 
the  scholars  of  every  land  and  age,  Heathen,  Papal 
and  Christian  have  occupied,  as  a  class,  the  ad- 
vanced posts  of  morality,  religion,  and  theology  in 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN     SCHOLAR.  217 

their  times.  And,  just  as  surely  as  the  commerce, 
enterprise,  art,  literature  and  jurisprudence  of  the 
world  are  to  become  thoroughly  Christian,  and  all 
the  drift  of  the  past  and  present  is  manifestly 
and  powerfully  in  that  direction,  so  ere  long  is  all 
the  scholarship  of  the  world  to  be  only  and  com- 
pletely evangelical. 

And  what  are  the  pleasures  to  the  truly  Chris- 
tian scholar,  of  the  full  earnest  use  of  his  powers  ? 
Great,  very  great  in  every  direction.  The  mind  was 
made  for  incessant  thought,  for  seeing,  comparing, 
analyzing,  arranging  and  deducing  facts  and  prin- 
ciples ;  and  exalted  indeed  is  the  joy  of  the  mind, 
when  at  work  with  all  its  might  upon  great  objects, 
and  for  great  ends.  Not  more  sublimely  sweeps  an 
eagle  around  a  lofty  mountain-peak,  hovering,  as  if 
intoxicated  with  delight,  over  the  vast  abyss  below, 
than  circles  the  excited  soul  of  a  noble  Christian 
thinker,  in  the  full  equipoise  of  all  its  powers  when 
in  their  highest  state  of  exaltation,  around  the 
loftiest  summits  of  truth  that  are  visible  to  mortal 
eyes.  The  pleasure  which  others  have  only  in  mo- 
mentary gushes  of  splendid  excitement,  from  the 
irregularity  of  their  untrained  mental  action,  he, 
having  learned,  by  long  and  careful  self-discipline, 
to  sustain  consecutive  and  concentrated  habits  of 
thought  to  any  desired  period  of  protraction,  is  able 

to  keep  in  a  full  ocean-swell  in  his  heart :    ever 
10 


218  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

breaking  grandly  like  a  sea  of  glory,  whose  waves 
are  all  waves  of  light,  surge  after  surge,  upon  the 
shore  of  his  inner  being. 

The  Christian  Scholar's  thinking,  on  whatever 
special  theme  employed,  is  always  as  such  devoted 
to  the  greatest  of  ends.  The  two  ends  of  his  scale 
of  thought  and  of  life  are  God  and  man.  From 
God  to  man  :  this  is  the  next  of  sentences  in  his 
thoughts  to  that  sublimest  of  all  utterances  :  from 
eternity  to  eternity.  Whether  ascending  or  de- 
scending on  such  a  scale,  his  movements  and  his 
pleasures  are  godlike.  The  true  Christian  Scholar 
is  a  sort  of  intellectual  mediator  between  God  and 
man  :  revealing  to  human  view  the  hidden  stores 
of  God's  wisdom  and  goodness,  otherwise  as  much 
undiscovered  to  ordinary  passers-by,  as  if  indeed 
they  were  not  at  all  in  existence.  While  the  sense 
of  power  is  one  of  the  most  delightful,  natural 
senses  of  the  mind,  from  the  experience  of  a  little 
child  who  knows  enough  to  blow  out  a  light,  and 
laughs  at  the  feat,  to  that  of  him  who  can  build  a 
telescope  or  an  ocean  steamer,  or  write  a  great  epic, 
it  rises  to  its  greatest  height,  when  the  end  accom- 
plished is  one  that  brings  lasting,  moral  advantage 
to  the  race. 

But  let  us  consider 

2dly.  The  liberties  of  the  true  Christian 
Scholar. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  219 

To  other  men  the  great  bright  outer  world  is  a 
mass  of  confused  unmeaningnesses.  Nothing  is  seen 
as  it  is,  in  reference  either  to  its  origin  or  its  uses. 
All  the  real  relations  of  things,  whether  outward  or 
inward,  are  not  only  unappreciated  but  also  unwit- 
nessed ;  and  the  wonders  with  which  every  mo- 
ment's vision  or  experience  is  crowded,  appear  to 
them,  if  they  look  at  them  at  all,  like  the  words  of 
a  strange  language  to  one  who  is  rude  in  knowledge. 
The  books  of  thought  and  truth  and  life  and  love 
which  lie  with  large,  open,  glowing  pages  before  the 
eyes  of  the  Scholar,  for  his  constant  rapture  in 
gazing  at  them,  seem  closed  to  them  with  seals 
that  they  cannot  break.  But  to  the  Scholar,  the 
deep,  earnest,  patient,  right,  thinker,  of  wide  horizon 
and  high  range  in  his  style  of  thought,  all  passages 
of  light  through  this  world,  or  from  it  to  another, 
that  God  has  paved  for  any  but  an  angel's  feet, 
stand  ever  open,  in  full,  clear,  broad,  illumination 
before  him. 

He  has  the  range  of  all  the  many  approaches  to 
the  secret  places  of  His  skill  and  love,  which  God 
has  prepared  with  such  royal  munificence  for  man's 
appreciation  of  Him  and  His  ways.  Others  are 
ruled  almost  inevitably  by  circumstances  :  he  in  a 
great  measure  rules  them.  They  wait  for  outward 
opportunity  :  he  is  instant  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  in  thought,  effort,  plan  and  attainment,  and 


220  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

in  always  trying  is  always  succeeding;  while,  in 
always  looking  to  God  for  His  blessing  on  what  he 
does,  he  enjoys  at  all  times  doubly  whatever  he 
obtains,  as  the  fruit  both  of  his  own  labors  and  of 
God's  co-operative  beneficence. 

Like  distinguished  men,  who,  when  travelling 
in  foreign  lands,  are  presented  with  the  freedom  of 
the  cities  through  which  they  pass,  he  has  received 
in  the  very  enlargement  of  his  mind  as  a  Scholar, 
and  his  investiture  as  a  Christian  by  God  of  "  all 
things  "  as  "  his/'  the  freedom  of  the  universe  ; 
and  to  him  alone  is  realized  in  its  full  sense  what 
is  meant  in  this  world  by  that  phrase  so  character- 
istic of  the  gospel :  the  freedom  of  the  Sons  of 
God. 

He  is  free  from  the  errors,  limitations  and  dis- 
appointments of  ignorance  ;  from  the  misleadings 
of  superstition  ;  from  conscious  subjection  to  others' 
neglects  or  frowns  ;  from  the  power  of  foolish  fears, 
presentiments  and  morbid  imaginations  ;  and  from 
the  gross  temptations  which  so  often  assail  effec- 
tually other  men  and  surprise  every  one  by  their 
overthrow  ;  as  well  as  also  from  the  lusts  of  other 
men,  as  the  lust  of  gold,  of  power,  of  flattery,  and 
of  all  the  varied  gaudy  show  of  pride.  No  men  work 
so  much  and  so  gladly,  for  so  little  compensation, 
as  Scholars  ;  and  men  looking  on,  say  :  "  Well !  if 
the  reward  be  small,  the  honor  is  great,  and  this 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAK.  221 

makes  the  balance  even  between  them  and  the  rest 
of  the  world."  So  indeed  writers  on  political 
economy  say  in  form  in  their  works.  But  not  such 
are  the  secret  thoughts  of  the  Scholar  himself.  He 
of  all  men  feels  that  honor  is  not  a  matter  of  any 
man's  calling  merely,  but  rather  of  his  own  actions 
in  it.  It  is  not  the  outward  glitter  of  his  style  of 
life,  that  reconciles  him  to  the  narrow  equipments 
with  which  society  furnishes  it ;  but  the  inward 
satisfaction  of  it,  as  meeting  the  deep  interior  wants 
of  his  nature,  as  a  thinker  and  a  doer  upon  the  brief 
stage  of  life,  and  as  providing  him  with  treasures  for 
his  own  enjoyment,  far  richer  than  those  that  can  be 
measured  in  gold  or  silver.  He  is  free  likewise  from 
others'  regrets,  who  feel  not  only  dissatisfied,  with- 
out thinking  why,  with  life  as  it  passes  ;  but  also 
at  its  close  generally  feel  their  own  self-condemna- 
tion, for  the  frivolity  and  emptiness  of  their  whole 
previous  life,  resting  with  the  weight  of  a  mountain 
upon  their  hearts.  He  is  free  too  from  the  wants 
of  others,  who  always  pine  for  something  that  they 
have  not  yet  obtained.  They  crave  novelty, 
change,  excitement,  and  seek  it  where  if  gained  it 
cannot  last,  or  even  pass  away,  as  it  must,  without 
reactive  sorrow.  And  he  is  free  from  the  accidents 
of  others.  In  the  peaceful,  sequestered  vales  of 
thought  he  walks  ;  and  the  tumults  and  the  uproar 
of  those,  who  are  involved  in  the  conflicts  of  life 


222  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

and  their  hazards,  are  to  him  in  the  far-off  distance. 
No  class  is,  as  a  class,  so  long-lived  as  thinkers,  espe- 
cially earnest,  joyous  Christian  students.  Their  pow- 
ers remain  unbroken  to  the  end.  They  have  inward 
stimulations  in  high  objective  aims,  mental  activity 
and  sweet  perpetual  joy,  that  of  themselves  tend 
most  powerfully  to  prolong  life.  And  the  more 
really  that  they  deserve  the  name  of  Scholars,  the 
more  do  they  walk  by  rules  and  principles  establish- 
ed by  God  himself,  in  respect  to  both  outward  and 
inward  elements  of  happiness  and  prosperity  :  as 
they  see  their  existence  and  their  scope  more  clear- 
ly, and  appreciate  more  instinctively  than  other 
men,  their  beauty  and  their  force. 

Others  possess,  in  the  natural  endowments  of 
their  being,  an  immense  amount  of  what  is  in  their 
hands  but  unproductive  real  estate  ;  while  in  his 
case  his  education,  in  its  full,  Christian  type,  con- 
stitutes a  great  and  splendid  capital,  which  he  keeps 
with  gladness  ever  invested  in  man's  wants  and 
God's  claims.  And  at  the  same  time,  in  the  ob- 
jective resources  with  which  it  furnishes  Jiim,  he 
holds  in  his  hands  the  keys  of  Heaven  and  earth 
and  of  all  their  untold  riches  ;  and  every  door  on 
every  side,  that  he  fain  would  enter,  flies  open,  as  if 
by  some  inward  magic  of  its  own,  at  his  approach, 
as  if  his  very  looks  were  keys  to  turn  their  bolts. 

The  Scholar's  occasions  for  employment,  more- 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  223 

over  are  of  his  own  making,  and  they  are  of  per- 
petual recurrence.  He  determines  his  own  sphere 
of  activity.  What  he  is  or  has  or  does  is  under 
God  self-appointed.  The  habit  of  his  mind  is 
therefore  tnat  of  strong,  conscious  self-direction. 
The  more  of  a  scholar  that  he  becomes,  the  more 
does  each  new  degree  of  elevation  isolate  him,  in 
respect  to  his  elements  of  thought  and  feeling, 
from  the  mass  around  him,  who  are  quite  unsym- 
pathetic and  indifferent  to  his  high  pursuits  ;  and 
without  the  counteracting  influences  of  true  piety, 
so  outward  and  communicative  as  it  is  in  all  its 
efforts  and  effects,  the  strong  centripetal  tendency 
of  his  life  would  serve  to  make  him  not  only  isola- 
ted in  his  experiences,  but  also  seclusive  and  selfish 
in  his  feelings.  The  attitude  of  his  mind  towards 
all  surrounding  objects  :  his  apprehension  and  appre- 
ciation of  them  :  his  standards  for  judging  them 
and  his  desires  in  relation  to  them  are  all  directly 
relevant  to  his  own  special  position  for  viewing  the 
universe.  What  others  see  not  he  beholds,  and 
what  they  gaze  upon  he  often  does  not  see  at  all. 
Indeed,  as  each  man's  sight  of  the  sun  or  of  any 
object  that  its  light  reveals  is  his  own,  and  can  be 
no  other  man's  ;  so,  the  universe  is  to  each  of  us 
what  his  eye  for  perceiving  it  is,  and  what  his  heart, 
for  appreciating  its  beauties  and  treasures  and 
glories. 


224  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

3dly.  The  habits  of  the  true  Christian  scholar. 

These  are  twofold  :  his  habits  of  thought  and 
feeling  about  his  work,  and  his  habits  of  application 
to  it. 

(1.)  His  two  characteristic  moods  of  mind  toward 
his  work  represent  well,  not  only  the  double  polarity 
of  his  own  thoughts,  but  that  also  of  every  right 
heart  toward  its  duty  :  patience  and  enthusiasm. 

§  1.  His  patience. 

He  accepts,  not  only  contentedly  but  also  gladly, 
the  law  of  labor,  against  which  others  in  such  num- 
bers are,  either  in  spirit  or  action,  at  perpetual  vari- 
ance. He  loves  labor  :  an  acquired  taste,  which  he 
has  slowly  but  surely  obtained,  as  one  of  the  great, 
ruling  elements  of  his  daily  life.  He  has  schooled 
his  heart  to  keep  a  steady  eye  upon  the  future.  All 
heroism  begins  and  ends  in  the  habit  of  making  the 
future  present  to  the  heart,  as  containing  in  itself 
all  the  great  realities  of  life.  His  heroism  is  not, 
as  is  the  bravery  of  a  soldier,  or  adventurer,  that  of 
a  crisis  :  impulsive  and  temporary  ;  but  the  hero- 
ism of  a  whole  life,  steady  and  true,  by  day  and 
night,  in  summer  and  winter,  from  youth  to  old 
age  :  not  issuing  from  caprice  or  excitement  for  a 
little  time  or  space  ;  but  ever  flowing  in  a  full 
stream  from  the  fountains  of  reason  and  of  con- 
science, wherever  it  can  find  a  channel  for  its  tide. 
He  has  faith  in  the  future,  in  the  steady  sequences 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  225 

of  cause  and  effect,  in  the  positiveness  of  Divine 
Providence,  and  in  Time  as  the  great  Eipener  of  all 
things  thought  or  done  by  man. 

There  are  no  preparatives  for  patience,  except 
those  of  grace,  like  those  of  thorough  classical  study. 
The  first  requirement  made  by  the  genius  of  scholar  • 
ship  of  a  student,  in  his  very  novitiate,  is  self-con- 
trol. Peace  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  secret  place 
of  study,  as  of  that  of  prayer.  Almost  all  the  self- 
government  of  society  :  its  equilibrium  of  thought 
and  its  great  all-pervading  stability  of  feeling,  even 
under  the  reign  of  Christianity,  are,  rightly  inter- 
preted, but  the  results  in  one  form  or  another  of  the 
thorough,  intellectual  discipline  of  the  leaders  of 
society,  in  this  and  preceding  ages. 

Often  is  the  scholar  thronged  and  almost  suffo- 
cated with  difficulties.  He  must  have  indeed  steady 
nerves  and  a  persistent  foot.  His  eyes  must  look 
right  on,  and  his  eyelids  straight  before  him.  Often, 
after  long  and  eager  wandering  through  some  narrow 
winding  path,  to  find  the  object  of  his  hopes,  he 
comes,  when  most  excited  with  the  expectation  of 
success,  to  the  verge  of  a  precipice,  or  to  some  high, 
perpendicular  obstruction,  and  must  retrace  all  his 
steps  again  to  the  very  place  of  beginning.  Critical 
scholarship  is  full  of  such  experiences.  Ever  and 
anon  badgered  and  baffled  in  its  course,  but  al- 
ways erect  in  its  spirit  and  earnest  in  its  work,  it 
10* 


226  THE     TRUE     CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

holds  on  resolutely  to  its  undertakings.  Trials 
are  its  needful  discipline,  as  they  are  of  reli- 
gion :  hardening,  tempering  and  purifying  its  char- 
acter. The  true  Christian  scholar  is  energetic  and 
hopeful.  Some  trial  and  trouble  must  be  accepted, 
he  feels,  as  a  part  of  the  necessary  wear  of  life.  For 
the  rest :  and  this  is  the  greater  part  of  all  the 
fretted  experience  of  men  ;  which  is  self-deter- 
mined, from  over-sensitiveness  to  it  or  from  want  of 
earnest  effort  to  remove  it :  he  ever  bids  his  heart  re- 
member, that  there  is  a  way  out.  For  every  temp- 
tation, saith  the  word  of  God,  and  so  for  every  trouble 
there  is  a  way  of  escape.  This  is  a  cardinal  part  of 
his  great,  practical  philosophy  of  life.  Others  allow 
themselves  to  think  and  say  that  they  cannot  do, 
what  yet  they  see  some  around  them  do,  for  their 
own  improvement  or  the  good  of  others,  and  content 
themselves  with  a  paralytic  philosophy  of  their  own 
powers  and  theory,  and  of  course  practically  also  of 
their  duties. 

Men  honor  only  what  appears  upon  the  surface 
and  strikes  the  sense  with  its  glitter.  Parade  and 
noise,  if  well  supported  in  the  rear,  make  an  essen- 
tial front  to  all  the  shows  of  human  greatness,  that 
men  are  disposed  to  admire  in  their  own  age.  But 
the  true  forces  of  society  that  inspire  and  control 
its  movements,  like  those  of  nature  and  of  the  uni- 
verse itself,  are  out  of  sight  to  the  multitude  and 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN     SCHOLAR.  227 

revealed  only  to  the  eye  of  thought.  The  true  no- 
blemen of  the  world  move  unknown  among  the  men 
of  their  generation.  They  are  the  toiling,  earnest, 
persevering  students  of  the  times,  ever  busy  in  pene- 
trating into  the  recesses  of  nature  and  the  mysteries 
of  life  and  the  wonders  to  be  found  in  the  invisible 
realms  of  thought  and  truth  :  lovingly  bent  on  bring- 
ing forth  to  the  view  of  all  men  whatever  beauties 
and  riches  they  can  find, for  their  use  and  enjoyment. 
And,  as  a  tree  has  received  its  present  growth  and 
shape,  from  myriads  on  myriads  of  distinct  mi- 
nute influences,  from  sun  and  soil  and  wind  and 
rain  ;  so,  the  final  results  of  their  efforts,  which  the 
rest  of  mankind  find  of  such  practical  advantage  to 
themselves,  are  the  sum  total  of  multitudes  of  sep- 
arate thoughts,  examinations,  experiments  and 
labors,  patiently  encountered  and  added  to  each 
other,  pile  upon  pile  for  years.  It  is  in  their  very 
patience,  their  long,  calm,  bold  waiting  for  the  de- 
sired end  of  all  their  labors,  that  their  power  lies, 
and  with  it  their  honor. 

What  a  demand  does  all  true,  high  scholarship 
make  upon  its  votaries  for  patience  !  It  never 
ceases  to  require  continuity  of  effort.  Genius,  wit 
and  speculation  may  flourish  on  happy  hits  ;  but 
scholarship  is  the  preparation  and  growth  of  years. 
Its  results  are  not  like  those  of  a  battle,  achieved 
suddenly  and  once  for  all,  but  rather  like  those  of  a 


228  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

huge  edifice,  carefully  planned  and  constructed  from 
the  corner-stone  without  to  the  last  finishing  stroke 
within.  Beside  mere  continuity  of  effort,  which 
might  have  in  it  the  variety  of  constant  change, 
scholarship  demands  a  great  deal  of  repetitiousness 
of  aim  and  toil ;  because  sometimes  the  end  to  be 
gained  is  a  large  collection  of  many  details  of  the 
same  kind,  and  at  others  repeated  failures  to  obtain 
the  full  result  in  every  desired  particular  perpetually 
stimulate  the  mind  to  new  efforts  to  avoid  them. 
A  frequent,  critical  review  also  of  one's  supposed 
achievements  is  not  the  smallest,  in  some  instances 
at  least,  of  the  forms  of  patient  toil  that  the  true 
scholar  is  ever  willing  to  impose  upon  himself.  And 
so  also  the  element  of  time  is  one  of  the  most  fun- 
damental, elements  of  all  broad  and  high  scholar- 
ship, as  of  all  broad  and  high  character.  Slowly, 
although  surely  and  majestically,  rises  day  after  day 
the  vast  pile  to  its  completion. 

Patience  in  its  higher  forms  is  bravery.  This 
the  Komans  understood  and  therefore  described  a 
brave  man  as  fortis  (from  fero  to  bear),  one  who 
could  endure  the  worst.  So  Paul  speaks  of  charity, 
or  Christian  principle,  as  "  bearing  all  things  :  "  it 
is  brave.  One  of  the  finest  of  all  preparations,  ac- 
cordingly, for  real  bravery  in  the  battle  of  life  and 
even  in  the  actual  thunder-storms  of  war  itself  is 
obtainable  by  long-protracted,  thorough,  mental 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  229 

drill  in  study.  An  army  of  well-trained  Christian 
scholars  would  certainly  be,  in  a  war  of  principle, 
the  most  formidable  army  that  any  one  could  meet. 
And  that  higher  bravery  of  daily  life  that  is  needful, 
to  go  persistently  and  triumphantly  through  all  the 
labors  and  troubles  of  every-day  experience,  to  the 
end  :  higher,  because  demanded  on  so  much  larger 
a  scale  and  without  the  aid  of  great  occasions  and 
great  crowds  to  animate  it  :  can,  next  to  religion, 
and  in  conjunction  with  it,  be  best  obtained  from  a 
high  and  true  and  large  style  of  mental  discipline. 

As  most  schools  and  colleges  are  at  present  con- 
ducted, a  young  man  runs  a  complete  gauntlet, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  during  his  whole  course 
in  them.  His  destiny  is  left  wholly,  or  nearly  so,  to 
his  own  unenlightened  judgment  and  his  own  un- 
supported courage,  to  keep  steadily  at  work  for  ben- 
efits that  are  out  of  sight.  Nothing  therefore  does  he 
need  more  than  persistent  patience  to  the  very  end. 

§  2.  His  enthusiasm. 

The  word  student  from  studium,  eagerness,  zeal, 
implies  that  he,  who  deserves  this  honorable  title, 
is  "fervid  in  spirit."  Zeal  is  an  essential  part  of 
the  character  of  a  scholar.  No  two  ideas  more  per- 
fectly antagonistic  to  each  other  could  be  combined, 
than  those  united  in  such  a  phrase  as  a  lazy  student. 
Not  more  absurd  would  it  be,  to  talk  of  sluggish 
lightning,  or  obscure  brilliancy. 


230  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

Character  is  so  little  cultivated  in  this  world  in 
any  direction  ;  and  all  ideas  of  artistic  development 
are  so  foreign  to  this  subject  in  the  thoughts  of  most 
men  ;  that  patience  and  enthusiasm  are  both  regard- 
ed commonly  as  natural  endowments,  where  they  are 
manifested,  rather  than  as  virtues  prepared  and  nur- 
tured from  height  to  height,  in  the  heart  that  pos- 
sesses them.  But  they  are  voluntary  excellences 
which  each  man  is  required  to  have,  as  truly  as 
honesty  or  purity  of  heart.  They  appear  also  at 
first  sight  to  be  contrary,  the  one  to  the  other ; 
while  in  fact  they  blend  as  harmoniously  in  union, 
as  the  subjective  and  objective  elements  of  things, 
which  are  everywhere  sublimely  paired  together, 
and  which  in  fact  they  respectively  to  a  great 
degree  represent.  The  virtues  of  patience  and 
enthusiasm  are  body  and  soul  to  each  other.  Pa- 
tience is  the  response  of  the  soul,  on  the  passive 
side  of  its  nature,  to  stubborn  things  without,  that 
press  upon  its  consciousness  ;  and  enthusiasm  is 
the  response  of  all  the  many  active  elements  of  its 
being  to  the  opportunities  for  effort,  progress  and 
usefulness,  which  it  beholds  around  and  before  it  in 
its  onward  pathway. 

The  Christian  scholar,  when  in  his  full  develop- 
ment, has  an  inward  sense  of  the  beautiful,  the 
true  and  the  good  which  other  men  lack  :  so  that 
they  are  blind  to  the  vision  which  perpetually  en- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  231 

chants  him.  He  seems  to  himself,  almost  even 
when  walking  amid  the  dust  of  this  gross  world,  to 
be  passing  over  fairy  ground.  Forms,  aspects, 
colors,  that  others  never  see  at  all,  are  always  glow- 
ing in  his  eye  and  burning  in  his  heart.  The  fire 
of  his  thoughts  is  celestial  and  never  goes  out  or 
even  goes  down,  but  is  always  blazing  upward  to 
its  native  source.  The  impulses  of  a  true  Christian 
scholar  are  of  a  high  origin  :  his  labors  all  have  a 
noble  end.  He  so  reaches  upwards  and  outwards 
as  always  to  long  for  power  to  reach  farther.  He  so 
fills  up  the  measure  of  his  opportunities,  as  to  feel 
ever  constrained  by  the  want  of  more  time,  to  do 
what  he  aims  to  do  and  longs  to  do  in  his  brief  day 
upon  the  earth.  His  habitual  consciousness  is  that 
of  a  soul  full  of  daring,  looking  out  for  new  fields  on 
which  to  employ  it :  full  of  strength,  and  wishing 
to  use  it  ;  and  full  of  all  accumulations  of  knowl- 
edge and  goodness,  and  wishing  to  bestow  them 
upon  others.  Time,  therefore,  never  hangs  as  a 
weight  upon  his  neck,  in  the  race  of  life ;  nor  does 
melancholy  sit  brooding,  like  a  bird  of  darkness,  upon 
the  altar  of  his  heart.  The  world  always  seems  to 
have  so  few  laborers  in  it,  really  addressing  them- 
selves to  its  true  wants,  that  there  is  at  all  times  an 
abundance  of  room  and  work  for  him.  His  field  of 
view  is  earth-wide  :  his  sense  of  God's  presence 
with  him  now  is  strong  and  quickenirg  ;  and  the 


232  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

thought  of  his  continued  existence  in  that  Presence 
forever  is  full  at  all  times  of  grand  inspiration  to 
him.  His  highest  taste  is  for  deeds  of  love  ;  and 
his  strongest  passion  is  to  please  Him,  who  made 
him  and  has  bought  him  with  his  own  precious 
blood.  The  wants  of  others  are  ever  sounding  like 
the  surges  of  a  sea  of  darkness  in  his  ear  ;  and  life  is 
full  to  him  of  splendid  opportunities  for  the  highest 
sort  of  moral  action.  With  his  own  big  soul  within 
him  :  with  God  above  and  around  him,  and  suffering 
men  in  multitudes  at  his  feet  :  with  Heaven  before 
and  Hell  behind  :  how  can  he  be  tame  in  his  spirit, 
or  low  in  his  aims,  or  faltering  in  his  movements  ! 
Whether  he  moves,  or  stands,  upon  the  stage  of  life, 
it  must  be  as  a  man  of  moral  grandeur  in  his 
thoughts  and  plans  :  one,  the  inward  swell  and  glow 
of  whose  feelings  will  give  an  air  of  nobility  to  all 
the  motions,  looks  and  tones  of  even  his  mortal 
frame. 

To  an  earnest,  Christian  scholar  life  appears  to 
be,  at  all  times,  a  drawn  game  between  himself  and 
the  devil.  It  is  not  merely  Shakspeare's  idea  of 
life  which  he  has  :  that  this  world  is  a  stage,  and 
all  the  men  and  women  are  actors  upon  it :  as  a 
place  for  the  exhibition  of  human  nature  to  human 
eyes  ;  but  Paul's  rather  and  the  gospel's  :  that  we 
are  all  here  upon  a  race-ground,  and  compassed 
about  with  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses  on  earth  and 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  233 

in  Heaven,  where  we  must  each  run  so  as  to  obtain, 
or,  failing  to  do  so,  lose  not  a  mere  earthly  crown, 
but  an  heavenly  one  forever. 

(2.)    His  habits  of  action  toward  his  work,  like 
his  moods  of  feeling  toward  it,  are  twofold. 

§  1.  It  is  his  habit,  to  be  thorough  in  his  style 
of  executing  it. 

He  is  thorough,  in  the  two  great  particulars, 
of  completeness  of  plan  and  finish  of  execution. 
Thoroughness  is  the  same  as  throughness.  He  trav- 
erses with  careful  exactness  the  full  orb  of  his  sub- 
ject, or  of  his  department  of  subjects.  He  pene- 
trates the  hidden  recesses  of  the  science,  art  or  lan- 
guage, to  which  he  is  devoted,  through  and  through. 
His  analyses  are  always  exhaustive  :  his  surveys 
always  complete.  The  discovery  by  himself  of  real 
negligence  in  his  work  would  entail  upon  him,  at 
once,  a  sense  of  guilt.  The  frequent  occurrence  of 
such  a  fault  would  justly  rob  him,  by  the  verdict  of 
his  own  conscience,  of  all  right  to  the  designation 
of  a  real  scholar,  or  to  his  own  self-respect  as  a  man. 
Blunders  anywhere  look  to  him  as  would  rents  in  a 
kingly  robe  or  blotches  on  a  piece  of  art.  Accu- 
racy is  the  very  jewel  of  his  honor.  He  is  slow  in 
forming  decisions,  because  so  minute  in  his  examina- 
tion of  their  proper  grounds  ;  but,  when  formed, 
they  are  fixed  facts  to  him,  and  stand  in  their  places, 
as  if  made  of  iron.  He  is  willing  "  to  take  pains  " 


234  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

now,  rather  than  to  be  himself,  by  and  by,  taken  of 
them.  Care  in  details,  at  all  times,  care  in  find- 
ing them  and  in  discriminating  and  employing  them 
aright :  this  defines  the  fundamental  difference 
between  a  great  mechanician,  painter,  sculptor, 
anatomist,  or  even  Christian  and  an  ordinary  one ; 
and  so  does  it  also  between  the  true  scholar  and  the 
false.  What  his  taste  and  his  eye  demand  of  him, 
at  all  times,  in  his  work  is  quality,  rather  than 
quantity. 

§  2.  It  is  his  habit,  to  concentrate  his  full  force 
of  mind  upon  his  work. 

It  is  an  essential  idea  of  the  true  scholar,  that 
he  bends  his  powers  to  the  utmost  upon  his  occu- 
pation. It  is  demanded  by  the  very  scope  of  his 
name  and  office,  that  they  should  be  made  to  burn 
always  with  intensity,  as  upon  a  given  focal  point, 
on  every  part  of  his  work.  Other  men  often  pass 
through  life  without  really  knowing  themselves  or 
being  known  of  others.  They  have  capacities  of 
reasoning,  discrimination,  comparison  and  judg- 
ment, of  which  they  dream  not,  because  never  using 
them  on  any  high  subject  or  to  any  full  intense 
degree  :  mines  of  wealth  in  their  own  natures,  that 
they  have  never  opened  :  heavenly  treasures  which 
they  have  never  put  at  all  to  usury.  The  true 
scholar,  on  the  contrary,  has  asserted  his  rightful 
place  over  things  around  him  as  their  proper  inter- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  235 

preter,  manager  and  owner,  and  demands  of  them 
persistently  and  successfully  to  give  up  the  secrets 
which  they  hold,  for  his  benefit. 

In  the  use  of  one's  faculties,  up  to  the  entire 
amount  of  their  vigor,  there  is,  when  they  are  in 
their  full  combination  of  action,  great  joy  to  one's 
self  and  great  power  over  others.  The  motives 
which  most  stimulate  the  mind  to  make  such  a 
complete  outlay  of  itself,  perpetually,  are  blessed 
and  divine  ;  and  the  employment  which  best  evokes, 
at  all  times,  such  a  conscious  demonstration  of  one's 
whole  energy  of  being,  is  a  blissful  employment. 
Not  more  willing  is  the  fruitful  earth  itself  to  yield 
its  riches  to  him,  who  will  faithfully  seek  after  them, 
than  are  the  sweet  waters  of  truth  or  salvation,  to 
run  into  any  one's  well,  who  values  them  suffi- 
ciently to  dig  down  to  the  depths  where  they  flow. 

The  accomplished  scholar  has  acquired  a  pow- 
er of  fixing  his  attention  fully  on  any  subject, 
at  will,  and  of  transferring  it  from  one  topic  to 
another ;  which  of  itself  alone  suffices  to  open  to 
him  myriad  doors  to  all  sorts  of  chambered  secrets, 
in  every  part  of  the  universe.  Power  of  attention, 
or  of  the  fixation  of  any  faculty  or  set  of  faculties 
upon  their  proper  object,  is  the  chief  exercise  of 
voluntary  power,  which  the  mind  can  employ  over 
its  own  functions.  This  it  is  the  daily  work  of 
the  scholar  to  exercise  ;  and  whatever  other  power 


236  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

a  strong  will  has  over  the  native  energies  of  the 
mind,  to  intensify  their  action  when  in  use,  he  also 
possesses. 

Like  all  men  of  high  thought,  imagination  and 
faith,  the  scholar  holds  always  in  full  view  a  lofty 
ideal  of  his  work.  The  elements  of  his  ideal,  like 
those  of  the  painter,  embrace,  in  respect  to  the 
style  of  results  to  be  gained,  the  following  ideas  : 
fulness  of  outline,  completeness  of  detail  and  finish 
in  execution.  To  realize  the  actual  demands  of 
such  a  comprehensive  mass  of  conceptions,  in  the 
form  and  direction,  the  quality  and  quantity,  of 
each  hour's  labor,  day  by  day  through  all  the  year, 
will  require  great  earnestness  of  feeling  and  concen- 
tration of  purpose  and  power  of  will,  at  all  times. 

The  more  real  genius  a  scholar  possesses,  the 
more  he  responds  instinctively  to  all  appeals,  direct 
and  indirect,  to  work.  That  is  no  fanciful  combina- 
tion of  ideas  which  so  often  occurs  in  the  biography 
of  great  men  :  "  he  was  a  man  of  great  genius  and 
of  unbounded  industry."  Any  man  who  has  un- 
bounded industry  has,  at  least,  one  large  streak  of 
genius  in  him,  not  to  say  also  of  success.  Dull  na- 
tures neither  stir  up  themselves  to  action,  nor  re- 
spond, with  any  sensitiveness,  to  quickening  in- 
fluences from  without. 

The  student  needs  surely,  if  any  other  one  does, 
to  be  a  man  of  principle  or  rather  of  principles,  many, 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  237 

fixed  and  great.  Energy,  method  and  patient  per- 
severance must  be  his  uniform  characteristics.  His 
hours  and  places  of  study  he  must  keep  sacred  from 
invasion.  Whatever  he  takes  in  hand  he  must 
master.  What  he  gains  he  must  keep,  and  be  able 
to  use  at  all  times  familiarly. 

There  are  especially  certain  maxims  and  first 
principles,  worthy  to  be  expanded  into  a  scholar's 
guide-book,  which,  for  the  benefit  of  the  young 
student,  shall  find  a  place,  for  at  least  their  mere 
enumeration  here. 

They  are  such  as  these  : 

1.  The  method    for    attaining  to  the    highest 
scholarship  in  the  end  is  simply  this  :  while  being 
regular  and  constant  in  one's  work,  to  get  every 
day's  lesson  in  first-rate  style  :  as  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  brick  edifice,  if  every  brick  is  itself  first- 
rate  and  is  laid  in  first-rate  cement  and  in  a  first- 
rate  way,  the  whole  structure  will,  when  completed, 
be  throughout  by  necessity  of  first-rate  quality. 

2.  Whatever  is  worthy  of  being  done  at  all  is 
worthy  of  being  done  in  the  best  manner  possible. 

3.  There  is  a  very  great  difference,  as  in  char- 
acter, art,  and  even  business,  so^  also  in  scholarship, 
between  being  exactly  right  and  a  little  wrong. 

4.  Every  man  makes  his  own  future. 

5.  Every  one  can  afford  to  work  hard  for  him- 


238  THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

self ;  and  if  so,  how  much  more  for  both  himself 
and  all  the  world  beside. 

6.  The  benefit  of  all  true  education  is  not  in 
itself,  but  in  its  uses. 

7.  Both  God  and  man  always  help  those,  who 
help   themselves,  and  much  more  those  who  help 
others  also. 

8.  In  God's  kingdom  every  man  reaps  exactly 
what  he  sows. 

II.  In  what  way  a  true  scholar  can  best  pro- 
mote his  own  highest  development. 

1st.  He  must  do  really  and  fully  all  things  for 
God. 

To  men  who  think  of  God,  as  -but  a  poetical 
description  of  some  occult  principle  in  nature,  or  of 
the  whole  material  frame-work  of  the  universe  itself, 
it  may  seem  strange  that  thoughts  of  him  can  give 
any  spur  to  the  soul.  But  conceived  of  as  He  is, 
as  a  Being  before  whom  all  others  united,  whether 
for  knowledge,  power  or  character,  are  less  than 
nothing,  to  whom  all  the  myriads  of  worlds  that  he 
has  made,  and  all  their  wondrous  contents,  are  but 
the  dust  of  his  feet  :  the  ever-present,  tender- 
hearted, loving  God,  bending  joyously  down  over 
each  one  of  his  earthly  children  :  like  what  an  orb 
of  splendor  beyond  splendor,  does  he  glow  upon  the 
vision  of  the  delighted  soul  and  fill  the  whole  hori- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SO 

zon  of  its  consciousness  !  Before 
beauty,  such  love,  the  soul  must,  by  the' 
sity  of  its  nature,  as  born  of  Him  and  for  Him,  arise 
and  shake  itself  and  put  on  all  its  strength.  Per- 
sonal love  to  God,  with  the  sure  consciousness  of  his 
own  glorious  friendship  in  return  :  what  fuel  will  it 
not  furnish  to  thought  and  feeling  and  vigorous 
mental  effort.  Labor,  spontaneously  generated  by 
such  sentiments  of  affection  to  him,  or  purposely 
bestowed  toward  him  as  the  formal  object  of  its 
aims  and  services,  will  give  to  all  real  scholarship 
the  fullest  possible  amount  of  growth  and  fruitage. 
Human  specimens  of  intellectuality  have  been  so 
few  and  poor,  and  are  so  still,  because,  like  plants 
grown  in  darkness,  they  have  been  reared  away  from 
the  sunlight  of  God's  sought  and  cherished  smile. 
All  beauty,  power  and  dignity,  in  any  part  of  our 
nature,  are  obtained  only  under  the  right  ruling 
influence  of  the  upper  elements  of  our  being  :  the 
light  of  reason,  the  breathings  of  conscience,  the 
power  of  faith  and  the  inspiration  of  hope  :  all 
God-ward  in  their  natural  tendencies  ;  as  in  the 
body  all  the  other  members  derive  their  light  and 
usefulness  from  the  head,  which  is  placed  over  them 
to  guide  them. 

But,  beside  the  heightened  action  of  the  soul 
itself  under  the  stimulus  of  a  true  sense  of  God,  as 
its  object  and  joy  forever,  the  scholar  will  obtain, 


240  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

in  maintaining  right  relations  to  Him,  his  manifest 
guidance  and  blessing.  Many  see  Him  only  in 
great  crises,  or  on  the  stage  of  national  events  ;  but 
he  is  in  fact  intimately  present  at  all  times  with  us 
all  :  more  so  than  was  ever  any  father  in  his  fami- 
ly, when  surrounded  by  his  children,  hearing  their 
words,  noticing  their  actions  and  gladdening  them 
with  his  presence,  and  being  made  glad  by  them. 
God,  who  made  the  palatial  chambers  of  the  soul, 
knows  how  to  walk  up  and  down  in  them,  when  he 
wills,  in  the  glory  of  his  goodness.  He,  who  made 
the  eye,  knows  how  to  illuminate  it  from  without 
or  from  within  ;  and  he  who  made  the  foot  knows 
how  to  plant  it  on  the  paths,  where  he  himself 
walks  in  gladness  with  his  children.  "  Prayer  and 
provender/'  says  the  old  quaint  proverb,  u  delay  no 
man."  Study,  baptized  with  a  spirit  of  prayer, 
has  angel-features  even  to  a  human  beholder  ;  but 
much  more  to  him  who  made  the  mind  for  just 
such  an  employment  of  its  time  and  powers,  and 
who  finds  nothing  among  all  his  works  so  beautiful 
to  his  eye,  as  a  right  heart  earnestly  at  work  for  his 
sake. 

The  highest  attainable  development  of  science, 
literature,  art,  labor  or  adventure,  is  its  religious 
development ;  and  so  it  is  true  of  men  in  any  em- 
ployment or  profession,  that  their  surest  path  to 
success,  even  according  to  earthly  measurements  of 
its  height,  is  that  of  religion. 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  241 

The  scholar.,  who  really  strives  in  all  things  to 
please  God,  will  feel  that  a  Critic  inspects  his  work, 
demanding  its  perfection,  far  higher  than  any  ideal 
self  or  ideal  public,  before  whose  fancied  verdict 
against  him  another  may  tremble.  He  will  feel 
that  he  has  ends  to  gain  far  grander  than  those 
around  him  desire  to  secure.  His  life  seems  full  to 
him  of  the  seeds  of  all  great  things.  Each  new 
moment  is  a  new  opportunity  for  some  heroic  deed. 
Life  is  to  him  a  sublime  march  into  an  ever-open- 
ing, ever-glowing,  gorgeous  future. 

The  idea  is  quite  prevalent  that  real  scholarship 
produces,  or  at  least  implies,  a  cold  nature.  Clas- 
sical and  frigid  are  regarded  as  terms  quite  sy- 
nonymous. Many  men  indeed  of  a  dull,  phleg- 
matic temperament,  especially  in  these  modem 
times,  when  the  temptations  to  minds  of  an  ener- 
getic mould  to  grasp  after  the  material  prizes  of 
life  are  so  great,  have  consecrated  themselves,  for 
their  own  gratification  if  not  for  the  world's  special 
advantage,  to  the  walks  of  study.  But  a  dead- 
alive  scholar,  like  a  so-called  Christian  of  the  same 
type,  makes  but  a  miserable  figure  indeed,  in  the 
ranks  of  honor  in  which  he  has  placed  himself.  A 
cool  head  is  one  of  the  most  essential  qualifications 
for  scholarship  ;  but  not  a  cold  heart.  The  only 
combination,  in  any  department  of  human  labor  or 

experience,  that  brings  to  the  producer  or  any  re- 
11 


242  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

cipient  the  right  product  of  joy  or  excellence  is 
this  :  a  cool  head  and  a  warm  heart.  Greatness  of 
heart  is,  as  every  one  knows,  the  most  uncommon 
symptom  of  humanity  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
To  be  simple,  gentle,  meek,  affectionate,  fervid, 
tender  :  would  to  multitudes  seem  to  be  weak  and 
womanish.  But  Christ,  who  had  in  his  spirit  and 
acts  alike  all  the  glory  of  manhood,  and  of  woman- 
hood, and  of  childhood,  combined,  as  was  meet  in 
Him  who  was  to  be  the  perfect  type  of  the  whole 
human  race,  is  the  model  of  the  true  scholar.  Out 
of  his  entire  life  in  all  its  minutest  forms  of  activ- 
ity should  ring  forth  loud  and  clear,  as  its  perpet- 
ual, sweet,  deep  melody  to  every  listening  ear : 
"  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business  ?  "  The  only  honor  that  intellectual  cul- 
tivation possesses  in  Heaven  or  on  earth,  is  that  of 
a  high  means  to  a  higher  end.  Its  riches  are  either 
squandered  or  hoarded,  if  not  purposely  used  to 
contribute  to  the  greater  beauty  and  power  of  a 
right  heart.  The  more  evangelical  and  glowing  the 
type  of  religious  development,  the  finer  the  reactive 
influence  of  the  scholarship  and  the  character  mu- 
tually upon  each  other.  The  Bible-command  to 
men  of  all  trades  and  professions,  alike,  is,  "  Be  not 
slothful  in  business,  but  fervent  in  spirit,  serving 
the  Lord  ! "  In  what  a  meagre,  shrivelled  form, 
compared  with  its  proper  dimensions,  has  the  schol- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  243 

arship  of  the  world  hitherto  appeared  !  When  the 
structure  of  Human  Society  shall  in  advancing 
ages  be  completed,  in  all  its  fulness  of  height  and 
breadth  of  beauty  and  strength,  as  a  vast  temple 
of  praise  to  God,  full  of  the  brightness  of  His  glory  : 
that  grand  edifice  of  which  Christian  scholars  are 
to  be,  in  every  part  of  the  world,  the  chief  human 
builders  :  what  a  work  will  they  then  be  found  to 
have  done  upon  the  earth,  and  what  a  high  com- 
mission from  above  will  they  prove  themselves  to 
have  had,  beyond  others  of  their  race,  as  laborers 
with  God  for  man  ! 

The  elements  of  personal  character  which  are 
most  beautiful  in  a  Christian  scholar,  before  both 
God  and  man,  are  these  :  simplicity,  the  last  at- 
tainment alike  in  science,  invention  and  art,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  in  human  character,  on  the  other  j 
honorableness,  which  is  as  beautiful  in  a  scholar,  as 
is  gallantry  in  a  soldier  ;  integrity,  which,  as  the 
word  itself,  like  the  word  entire  derived  through  the 
French  from  the  same  root,  means,  is  wholeness  or 
soundness,  so  that  without  it  no  man  is  himself  or 
can  be,  but  is  on  the  contrary  only  the  broken  spe- 
cimen of  a  man  ;  purity,  the  want  of  which  sullies 
him,  as  it  would  the  minister  at  the  altar  or  the 
virgin  in  her  robe  of  whiteness  ;  self-respect,  witb 
out  which  no  one  else  can  respect  him  ;  industry, 
but  for  which  he  can  neither  get  nor  keep  the 


244  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

name  or  character  of  a  scholar  ;  and  active  ever- 
flowing  benevolence,  according  to  whose  dictates  he 
is  to  lay  out  all  the  riches  that  he  has  obtained, 
natural  and  acquired,  for  others. 

2dly.  He  must  keep  himself  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  age. 

If  any  one  upon  earth  ought  to  be  practical  in 
his  aims,  it  is  the  scholar.  He  sees,  or  ought  to 
see,  with  his  purified  vision,  as  other  men  cannot, 
the  real  wants  of  the  world  as  they  are  ;  and  he  it 
is  who  alone  has  the  materials  in  his  hand  for  meet- 
ing them.  The  end  of  knowledge  and  of  scholar- 
ship is  usefulness  to  others.  Utility  is  indeed  the 
law  of  all  values,  human  and  divine.  The  personal 
life  or  labor,  which  is  divorced  from  the  actual  ex- 
perience or  wants  of  men,  is  so  far  worthless.  But 
how  many  have  turned  scholarship,  as  others  have 
religion,  into  a  mere  gilded  abstraction.  It  has  in- 
deed passed  into  a  habit  with  multitudes  to  jeer, 
without  knowing  it,  at  great  truths  and  rules  of 
conduct  in  calling  them  beautiful  theories  :  as  if  a 
passing  laugh  could  suddenly  change  a  great  com- 
manding fact  into  a  glittering  generality. 

A  man  may  be  as  much  of  a  miser  in  hoarding 
knowledge,  as  in  hoarding  gold.  He  that  would  be 
the  greatest  of  all  in  the  kingdom  of  thought,  as  in 
that  of  faith,  must  be  the  servant  of  all.  Pitiful 
indeed  is  any  perversion  of  scholarship  to  purposes 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  245 

of  parade  and  pride.  Keal  scholarship  is  as  averse 
to  any  such  perversion,  as  is  real  piety.  And  yet 
there  are  many  who  regard  classical  finish  of  thought 
and  style,  as  the  highest  attainment  possible  to  be 
made  on  earth  ;  and  that  not  as  any  means  of  bene- 
fit to  others,  but  as  a  mere  shining  honor  to  one's 
self. 

The  true  Christian  scholar  however  will  study 
his  age,  as  his  own  legitimate  field  of  action,  and 
strive  to  communicate  the  light  and  heat  of  his 
own  inward  life  to  it,  as  one  of  its  great  permanent 
realities.  He  will  not  simply  feel  that  he  is  acting 
his  part  in  a  great  amphitheatre,  in  which  the  sur- 
rounding air  is  filled  with  eyes  and  ears,  intent 
upon  all  that  he  says  and  does  ;  but  also  that, 
wherever  he  goes,  he  is  a  seedsman  sowing  good  or 
evil  at  every  step  which  shall  stand  up  in  the  world, 
long  after  he  has  left  it,  as  the  lasting  product  of 
his  life.  Of  all  men  in  the  community  the  scholar 
is  the  most  truly  entitled  to  be  called  a  representa- 
tive man  :  so  many  secret  wonders  stand  waiting 
his  beck  for  the  time  of  their  deliverance  to  man- 
kind, and  so  many  interests  of  the  highest  sort  and 
of  ever  new  occurrence  are  decided  by  the  form  and 
force  of  his  movements.  He  has  obtained  light  and 
he  should  disperse  it.  He  holds  the  keys  of  know- 
ledge in  his  hands,  and  should  open  with  them  the 


246  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

ways  of  enjoyment,  usefulness  and  honor  to  as  many 
as  possible. 

It  is  a  sort  of  natural  habit  of  scholars  as  a 
class  to  act  towards  the  age  as  a  compensation  or 
complement  to  its  deficiencies,  real  or  supposed. 
When  the  tendencies  of  the  community  are  cen- 
tripetal, as  in  monarchical  Europe,  the  influence  of 
the  universities  is  thrown  with  living  and  almost 
instinctive  energy  and  utterance,  on  the  side  of 
democratic  ideas  and  institutions.  When  the  ten- 
dency is  centrifugal  rather  than  centripetal,  as  in 
this  country,  they,  or  at  least  the  professors  in 
them,  are  apt  to  be  of  a  more  centripetal  and  con- 
servative style  of  action  But  to  balance  the  move- 
ments of  the  age,  so  as  to  keep  the  ship  of  state 
from  being  rocked  unduly  either  way,  is  certainly 
but  a  small  part  of  the  work  appointed  for  the 
scholar,  as  the  man  who  alone  among  his  fellows 
has  had  the  crown  of  authority  set  upon  his  head 
by  his  Maker.  He  is  called,  on  the  contrary,  of 
God,  not  simply  to  keep  the  vessel  trim,  but  much 
more  to  steer  it  safely  over  boisterous  seas,  and  with 
bold  heroic  faith,  into  "  the  place  of  broad  rivers  " 
prepared  by  His  covenant  for  the  nations. 

3dly.  He  must  keep  himself  at  all  times  full  of 
work. 

Work  is  the  law  of  success  in  every  thing  under 
the  sun.     Even  those  who  do  not  have  to  work  to 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  247 

make  money  must  needs  work  to  keep  it  ;  and  he 
who  has  tried  the  two  will  testify  that  it  is  harder 
to  keep  money,  than  to  make  it.  The  mechanism 
of  the  mind  is  all  constructed  with  reference  to  the 
constant  pressure  of  necessary  work  upon  its  ener- 
gies. This  is  to  give  tone  and  movement  and  di- 
rection perpetually  to  them.  Industry  is  therefore 
an  absolute  necessity  to  health  or  happiness  or  vir- 
tue. He  who  is  always  employed  with  all  his  might 
on  the  proper  objects  of  his  pursuit  will  not  only 
find  a  trail  of  results  accompanying  him  that  will 
surprise  even  him  ;  but  he  will  find  also  the  occa- 
sions for  fresh  interest  and  labor  perpetually  multi- 
plying in  his  path. 

Many  scholars  so-called  have  indifferent  health 
because,  under  the  influence  of  the  false  and  per- 
nicious theory  that  earnest  protracted  labor  of  the 
mind  is  as  such  detrimental  to  high  bodily  vigor, 
they  restrain  themselves  with  cold  and  painful  per- 
tinacity from  the  most  natural  and  joyous  use  of 
their  powers,  and  spend  the  time  and  force  thus 
foolishly  withheld  from  answering  the  great  objective 
demands  of  life  upon  them,  in  rummaging  over 
their  own  consciousness  and  the  whole  realm  espe- 
cially of  their  bodily  sensations,  to  find  trouble  or 
at  least  the  beginnings  of  it  where  they  can.  A 
scholar  is  designed  as  little  by  his  Maker  to  occupy 
his  thoughts  with  himself,  as  a  Christian.  Melan- 


248  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

choly  is  God's  visitation  upon  an  idle  mind  :  his 
mode  rather  of  scourging  such  an  one  back  again 
to  his  duty  ;  for  the  way  of  escape  from  any  trouble 
in  life  is  duty  coupled  with  trust  in  God.  Blessed 
be  His  name  for  placing  thorns  and  briars  in  the 
way  of  all,  who  are  inclined  to  indulge  in  voluntary 
mental  inefficiency.  There  is  too  much  bound  up 
in  this  brief  life  of  ours  :  the  possibilities  of  our 
nature  and  of  our  earthly  relations  and  circum- 
stances are  too  great  ;  and  the  splendors  yet  to  be 
unfolded  in  the  advancing  history  of  mankind  at 
large,  or  of  any  one  of  its  members  in  particular, 
are  too  magnificent  :  that  voluntary  torpidity  of  in- 
tellect should  be  endurable  as  a  matter  of  duty,  or 
decency,  to  either  God  or  man. 

No  man  knows  what  he  can  do  until  he  really 
tries,  up  to  the  full  limit  of  his  opportunities  and 
capacities.  It  is  he  who  is  always  trying  to  do 
something  greater  and  better  than  hitherto,  who  is 
always  achieving  wonders.  Difficulties  vanish  at 
once,  like  mere  spectral  terrors,  at  his  approach. 
Men  and  circumstances  yield  before  him.  He  as- 
serts his  proper  lordship  over  things  around  him 
and  finds  that  they  all  show  at  once  a  willing  alle- 
giance. The  law  of  Divine  help  to  human  workers 
is  :  "  to  him  that  hath  shall  more  be  given."  God's 
plan  of  life  for  each  one  can  be  realized  or  known, 
only  as  each  one  makes  at  all  times  the  fullest  pos- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  249 

sible  outlay  of  every  energy,  power  and  resource, 
in  all  conceivable  forms  of  duty,  usefulness,  love 
and  honor  ;  and  so  finds  in  the  aggregate  results  of 
all  his  efforts  at  the  end  of  life,  in  what  he  did 
truly  and  fully  accomplish,  the  work  that  he  was 
actually  called  and  prepared  to  do  by  his  great 
Maker.  The  key-note  therefore  of  each  man's 
heart,  in  respect  to  every  opportunity  and  responsi- 
bility in  life  should  be  this,  "  I  will  try  !  "  really, 
constantly,  hopefully,  ever,  "  try  !  "  This  is  the 
spirit  of  which  all  greatness  and  all  high  goodness 
are  made. 

The  great,  ruinous  tendency  of  almost  all  Amer- 
ican scholarship,  is  haste  for  results  and  those  only 
of  a  material  kind  ;  and  a  consequent  narrowness 
of  preparation  for  any  high  and  broad  attainments 
in  the  end.  The  tendency  to  be  unpractical  and 
selfish,  in  using  one's  educational  resources  when 
obtained,  is  a  fault  of  perverted  human  nature  it- 
self ;  but  the  tendency  to  satisfy  one's  self  with  a 
narrow  and  pitiful  scale  of  educational  outfit  for 
the  many  and  great  demands  of  life,  is  one  of  the 
special  faults  of  our  own  country.  The  student 
should  be  early  made  to  comprehend  that  his  plat- 
form of  research,  study,  knowledge  and  thought 
must  be  broad.  Those  who  set  his  tastes  and  man- 
age his  interests  at  the  outset  should  aim,  as  the 
first  point  to  be  gained  in  his  proper  development, 
11* 


250  THE    TRUE     CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

to  make  him  feel  that  there  must  be  and  is,  a  great 
and  all-sufficient  Object  fixed  perpetually  over 
against  his  whole,  sensitive,  active  being,  for  him  to 
see  and  serve  and  love  :  fitted  to  every  want  and 
faculty  of  his  nature,  in  all  the  height  and  breadth 
and  depth  of  his  entire  consciousness.  He  must  in 
the  next  place  be  brought  under  the  power  of  exact 
and  steady  drill ;  and  last  of  all  he  must  be  led 
firmly  on  in  right  directions,  over  the  true  fields  of 
intellectual  toil,  and  for  a  full  amount  of  both  space 
and  time. 

All  this  varied  work  of  his  appointed  guides  for 
him,  designed  and  executed  intelligently  and  per- 
sistently in  his  behalf,  has  but  one  real  aim  :  to  es- 
tablish in  him  the  same  earnest  and  fixed  habits  of 
self-treatment.  All  his  real  growth  of  mind  and 
character  must  be,  from  first  to  last,  high  continued 
self-growth  ;  and  the  office  of  his  teachers  is  but  to 
secure  the  right  processes  and  directions  of  it  for 
him  at  the  beginning,  and  to  inspire  him  at  the 
same  time,  so  far  as  possible,  to  carry  them  on  af- 
terwards for  himself  to  full  completion.  If  there- 
fore he  has  been  rightly  directed,  and  responds  him- 
self heartily  to  the  moulding  influences  that  he  has 
received,  he  will  go  on  through  life,  holding  the 
greatest  object  of  action  ever  in  clear  view  :  full  of 
the  feeling  and  right  in  the  habit,  at  all  times,  of 
thorough  self-drill :  grudging  neither  time  nor  toil 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  251 

spent  on  his  own  inward  self ;  and  being  both  wide 
and  far-reaching,  in  his  own  chosen  style  of  self- 
development. 

There  are  two  modes  of  high  intellectual  self- 
culture  which  surpass  all  others,  for  both  the  amount 
and  style  of  their  benefits  ;  and  on  which  for  that 
reason  the  mature  student,  who  aims  at  the  great- 
est possible  results  in  ever-abounding  continuance 
to  himself,  should  be  always  earnestly  intent  :  the 
study  of  language,  the  philosophic,  artistic,  com- 
prehensive and  comparative  study  of  it,  in  different 
forms  ;  and  the  study  of  the  art  of  composition. 
Of  all  just  study  of  language  the  ancient  lan- 
guages must  form  the  basis,  not  only  in  a  prelimi- 
nary but  also  in  a  perpetual  way.  Nor  can  they  be 
studied  rightly  by  themselves  alone  :  as  they  are  but 
the  lower  radical  forms  of  the  upper-growing,  full- 
flowered  languages  of  modern  times.  In  these  their 
juice  and  strength  and  beauty  are  all  still  found. 
They  lived  in  fact  and  died  for  these  their  successors  : 
as  every  thing  else  in  the  grand  procession  of  events 
on  earth,  however  valuable  in  itself,  has  yet  its 
chief  value  in  its  connections,  as  a  matter  of  profit 
and  gain  to  those  who  come  after  it.  One  of  the 
chief  reasons  why  the  study  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages is  so  partial  in  this  country  and  attended 
with  so  little  high  exultation  of  feeling  is  this  : 
that  they  are  studied  so  much  by  themselves  and 


252  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

therefore  out  of  their  connections  and  apart  from 
their  true  uses.  Who  would  expect  to  find  any 
such  pleasure  in  studying  a  mere  mass  of  base- 
clefs,  separated  from  the  accompanying  parts  of  the 
tunes  whose  under-tones  they  form,  as  in  studying 
and  practising  them  with  a  full  insight  and  use  of 
all  the  correlated  elements  of  harmony  ? 

The  study  of  language  in  its  highest  forms  and 
broadest  relations  calls  into  exercise,  beyond  any 
other  study,  all  the  varied  faculties  of  the  mind  : 
it  feeds  the  soul  perpetually  with  the  choicest 
thoughts  and  sentiments  of  the  greatest  and  best 
minds  in  the  past  ;  while  the  taste  is  perpetually 
refined  and  exalted  by  constant  communion  with 
the  most  elaborate  and  beautiful  specimens  of  logi- 
cal and  rhetorical  art  ;  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
great  aims  and  great  deeds  of  those  who  adorned 
the  elder  ages  by  their  achievements,  is  breathed 
through  their  works  into  the  hearts  of  those  who 
sit  in  rapt  admiration  at  their  feet. 

The  careful,  earnest  practise  of  the  art  of  com- 
position, according  to  the  highest  ideals  that  the 
mind  can  form,  both  as  to  the  style  of  thoughts  to 
be  expressed  and  the  most  effective  and  attractive 
method  of  expressing  them,  will  increase,  beyond 
any  other  mode  of  self-culture,  both  the  fact  and 
the  sense  of  the  real  fulness  and  readiness  of  one's 
inward  resources,  and  of  the  ever-expanding  ele- 


THE    TRUE    CHKISTIAN     SCHOLAR.  253 

merits  of  growth  with  which  his  Maker  has  en- 
dowed him  as  a  man.  Pitiahle  indeed  is  his  men- 
tal condition,  who  looks  upon  this  grand  employ- 
ment of  all  his  faculties  in  combination,  as  a  task 
which  he  is  glad  to  escape  ;  and  who  therefore  from, 
its  burdensomeness  seldom  or  never  undertakes  such 
delightful  labor. 

As  the  habit  of  regular,  right  composition  is 
one  of  the  most  rewarding  of  all  habits  that  one 
can  possibly  form,  we  are  quite  disposed  to  give  the 
young  student  a  brief  homily  upon  the  matter  for 
his  good.  Have  then  the  habit  of  writing  regular- 
ly. Choose  a  subject  that  interests  you  and  when 
once  chosen  adhere  firmly  to  it,  whatever  dissatis- 
faction with  it  afterwards  may  tempt  you  to  ex- 
change it  for  another.  Gather  together  at  the  out- 
set upon  paper  the  first  thoughts  that  interested 
you  in  the  subject,  and  add  to  them  what  you  can 
by  frequent  sallies  in  the  same  field  after  other 
kindred  thoughts.  When  the  pile  is  large  enough 
for  a  plan,  form  one,  and  one  suggested  by  the 
thoughts  themselves  and  demanded  for  them.  Then 
study  the  plan  as  such,  to  make  it  complete  in  it- 
self. When  this  is  accomplished  :  take  it  up  vig- 
orously and  eagerly,  part  by  part  and  limb  by  limb, 
to  clothe  the  dry  forms  and  formulas  of  the  plan 
with  full,  free,  flowing  thought  and  feeling.  Make 
it  a  rule,  from  first  to  last,  to  think  only  of  your 


254  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

subject  and  its  uses,  in  unfolding  it,  and  not  at  all 
of  yourself ;  and  while  not  rejecting  ornament, 
never  to  seek  for  it  as  such,  but  to  seek  truth  and 
strength  and  fulness  of  representation  first  and  then 
to  add  to  your  subject,  in  its  exact  and  earnest 
treatment,  whatever  illustrations  of  beauty  natu- 
rally occur  to  your  thoughts,  serving  to  illuminate 
it  or  to  enchant  the  reader  or  hearer  with  it,  whose 
profit  and  pleasure  you  are  seeking.  When  thus 
finished  in  your  best  style  lay  it  by,  and  when  it 
has  become  quite  cold  and  is  to  you  like  the  com- 
position of  another,  take  it  up  for  a  thorough  sift- 
ing out  of  all  waste  or  needless  materials,  or  of 
everything  which  does  not  contribute  to  its  positive 
clearness,  strength  or  beauty.  Concentrate  and  con- 
dense where  you  can,  and  finish  and  burnish  the 
whole  composition  to  a  still  higher  degree  of  excel- 
lence. You  will  not  pursue  such  a  course  long,  be- 
fore what  you  first  commenced  as  a  drudgery,  or  at 
least  as  a  duty,  will  become  one  of  your  keenest  plea- 
sures, and  what  was  at  first  difficult  will  not  only 
become  facile,  but  even  full  of  inspiration  and  joy- 
ousness  to  you. 

This  general  part  of  our  subject  we  cannot 
leave,  without  a  word  more  about  the  wearisomeness 
of  mental  toil.  Those  who  perform  the  most  intel- 
lectual labor  are  commonly  those  who  least  speak 
of  its  fatiguing  them.  But  if  one  is  exhausted  in 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  255 

such  a  way,  it  is  not  usually,  when  the  thing  does 
really  occur,  the  amount  of  work  done  that  causes 
the  sense  of  fatigue  so  much  as  the  associations  of 
the  mind  with  it.  He  who  loves  his  work  not  only 
finds  it  light,  hut  also  finds  himself  ever  fresh  and 
ready  for  more.  How  different  is  a  walk  for  the 
sake  of  mere  exercise  and  as  an  unwelcome  duty, 
from  the  same  walk  enlivened  all  the  way  with 
thoughts  of  some  pleasing  object  to  be  gained  by 
it,  or  with  the  gladsome  companionship  and  con- 
verse of  a  cherished  friend  !  What  wonders  of  fa- 
tigue can  a  frail  mother  encounter,  in  the  care  by 
day  and  night  for  weeks  of  a  sick  child,  for  whom 
no  outlay  of  strength  and  money  and  time  seems 
too  precious,  provided  only  she  be  hopeful  and 
cheerful  in  her  efforts  and  not  anxious  and  care- 
worn. It  is  the  wear  and  tear  of  men's  own  fretful 
thoughts  that  exhaust  them  in  their  work,  instead 
of  that  work  itself:  like  nausea  at  sea  which  is 
said  to  be  when  continued  rather  a  mental  than 
bodily  difficulty  in  its  origin,  arising  from  the  con- 
stant resistance  of  the  mind  to  the  motion  of  the 
boat,  as  in  the  case  of  vertigo  to  those  afflicted  by 
it  in  a  swing.  All  the  exhilaration  and  physical 
profit  of  a  sport  is  taken  away  from  a  child,  the 
moment  that  he  feels  that  it  has  ceased  to  be  a 
sport  and  is  a  duty.  In  the  German  language,  ac- 
cordingly, our  mental  states  and  experiences  are 


256  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

truthfully  described  by  the  use  of  reflexive  verbs  to 
express  them,  as  self-originated  :  our  doubts  and 
fears,  our  joys  and  sorrows.  Let  then  the  student 
be  ever  vigorously  at  work,  and  not  only  accept  the 
law  of  work  calmly,  as  a  necessity  to  which  he  must 
submit,  but  much  more,  joyously,  as  one  whose 
wisdom  and  profit  he  sees  and  admires. 

4thly.  He  must  maintain  at  all  times  the  most 
careful,  scientific  treatment  possible  of  his  body. 

The  body  occupies  indeed  a  high  relation  to  the 
soul,  as  the  outward  form  of  so  august  an  inhabit- 
ant. "  Ashes  to  ashes,"  we  say  of  the  body  when 
dead  ;  but  the  great  God,  "  who  dwelleth  not  in 
temples  made  with  hands,"  and  "  whom  the  Heaven 
of  heavens  cannot  contain,"  Himself  calls  it  when 
alive  "  His  temple."  Without  health  the  finest 
intellect  and  the  largest,  purest,  most  godly  and 
godlike  heart  are,  with  like  certainty,  limited  in 
the  sphere  of  their  action  and  fearfully  shorn  of 
their  power  in  it.  The  men  who  have  wrought  a 
sublime,  abiding  work  in  their  age,  have  been  with 
great  uniformity  men  of  abounding  health.  A. 
man  of  habitually  strong  nerves,  lively  sensibilities, 
elastic  spirits,  energetic  impulses  and  ever-conscious 
force  of  muscle,  feeling,  thought  and  will  :  what  a 
giant  is  he  prepared  to  be,  in  either  action  or  en- 
durance !  How  can  he  ever  drink,  as  others  can- 
not, with  perpetual  joyousness,  as  from  an  over- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  257 

flowing  cup,  of  the  sweet  influences  of  earth  and 
of  heaven  ;  and  how  can  he  pour  forth  the  treas- 
ures of  his  own  heart  in  a  strong  tide  of  living, 
loving  feeling  upon  others  !  No  one  has  a  right  to 
indulge  in  any  habits,  acts,  feelings,  negligences  or 
ventures,  that  can  in  any  way  impair  or  jeopard  his 
highest  health,  except  for  reasons  that  God  Him- 
self will  sanction  as  being  demanded  in  His  ser- 
vice. 

The  body  is  exquisitely  constructed,  both  as  a 
wondrous  living  organism  by  itself,  and  as  a  com- 
plicated assemblage  of  adaptations  for  the  wants 
and  uses  of  its  indwelling  inhabitant.  It  is  the 
finest  piece  of  divine  mechanism  upon  earth,  and 
the  highest  form  of  material  beauty  witnessed  by 
mortal,  if  not  by  angelic,  eyes.  That  great  Archi- 
tect who  constructs  all  organized  forms  according 
to  perfect  geometric  principles  and  proportions,  and 
who  makes  all  even  inorganic  substances  not  of 
simples,  but  always  of  different  elements  mingled 
together,  and  that,  in  each  case,  with  the  most  mi- 
nutely exact  uniformity  of  weight,  in  every  element 
of  the  compound  :  He  has  blended  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  human  body  all  the  highest  mechanical 
contrivances  and  chemical  combinations  and  agen- 
cies, to  be  found  among  the  earthly  demonstrations 
of  His  skill.  Not  only  in  its  construction,  but  also 
in  the  daily  voluntary  and  involuntary  use  of  its 


258  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

various  elements  and  functions,  law  has -one  of  its 
highest  thrones  of  heauty  upon  earth.  Must  then 
laws  he  carefully  studied  and  obeyed,  in  working  a 
piece  of  human  mechanism  made  of  hut  few  parts, 
and  those  coarse  and  heavy,  and  will  a  little  care- 
lessness here,  as  in  the  handling  of  an  optical  in- 
strument, chronometer  or  electrical  machine,  defeat 
all  the  ends  that  might  otherwise  he  compassed  and 
even  ruin  the  mechanism  itself  ?  And  how  much 
more  will  the  human  hody,  so  manifold  in  its  com- 
plications and  of  such  a  delicate  tempering  of  all 
its  inward  essences  and  elements  together  into  one 
strangely  united  whole,  suffer  damage  from  ahuse 
or  neglect  ?  But  who  seems  to  have  any  strong, 
mastering  sense  of  responsibility,  ahout  the  occa- 
sional or  even  the  chronic  states  of  the  body  ? 
Whose  body  is  not  marked  with  many  wounds  from 
needless  and  wanton  thrusts,  in  moments  of  excite- 
ment and  folly,  at  its  tender  framework,  inwardly 
or  outwardly  ?  No  man  has  a  better  chance  for 
long  life  than  the  student  :  yea,  rather,  none  so 
good,  if  he  rightly  improves  it  ;  and  none  can  get 
such  a  rich  variety  of  all  kinds  of  physical  enjoy- 
ment as  he,  if  he  desires  them. 

The  conditions  of  health  and  vigor  are  few,  but 
they  are  imperative  ;  and  it  is  a  maxim  not  only 
of  human  law  but  also  of  the  divine,  that  "  igno- 
rance excuses  no  one."  They  are  also  all  easily  as- 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  259 

certainable,  and  God  has  placed  the  privilege  of 
health  almost  as  absolutely  within  the  reach  of 
every  one  who  will  keep  its  plain  appointed  rules, 
as  He  has  the  opportunity  also  of  a  residence  for- 
ever with  Him  in  the  Upper  City  to  all  who  will 
seek  for  it.  It  is  a  terrific  demonstration  indeed  of 
the  gross  amount  of  sins  against  the  body  commit- 
ted by  each  generation,  that  its  average  life,  instead 
of  being,  as  it  might  and  should  be,  a  half  century 
and  more,  should  be  shortened  down  to  a  point  but 
little  beyond  the  half  of  so  brief  a  period.  In  the 
fact  that  our  octogenarians  are  usually,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  them  at  least,  those  whose  health  was 
originally  feeble,  and  that  for  many  years,  and 
who  therefore,  in  order  to  enjoy  any  health,  had  to 
husband  the  little  that  they  did  possess,  we  see  on 
a  small  scale  what  might  be  witnessed  in  this  world, 
on  a  large  one,  if  all,  weak  and  strong  alike,  sought 
zealously  to  have  a  conscience  entirely  void  of  of- 
fence in  this  matter,  before  God.  A  piece  of  glass 
can  be  kept  as  long  with  care,  as  a  piece  of  iron  ; 
and,  if  kept  for  a  long  period,  it  surely  proves  that 
the  iron  might  have  been  kept,  as  long  and  well. 

One  or  two  specific  hints  are  all  that  can  be  in- 
dulged in  here.  One  of  them  is  this  :  the  student 
must  be  a  moderate  eater.  He  that  eats  like  a 
working-man  may  toil  with  his  hands,  but  not  with 
his  head.  The  habit  of  eating  very  slowly,  and 


260  THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

filling  up  the  space  thus  allowed  one's  self  with 
plenty  of  mastication  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  light 
cheerful  conversation  on  the  other,  would  reveal  to 
many  not  only  new  pleasure  in  eating,  but  also  a 
new  enjoyment  of  health.  Light  meals,*  especially 
at  the  end  of  the  day,  when  the  powers  of  digestion 
are  most  incapable  of  mastering  difficulties,  are 
wonderful  helpers  to  health  and  cheerfulness  and 
clear  thought,  and  even  to  religious  feeling.  A  man 
of  thought,  whose  pleasures  are  so  many  of  them 
subjective  in  their  source,  as  are  a  scholar's,  should 
find  no  difficulty  in  constant  abstinence  from  a  full 
diet,  or  from  one  of  doubtful  quality.  But  without 
formal  intentions  and  efforts  concerning  this  matter, 
he  will  be  quite  sure  to  go  astray  :  as  a  life  of  study 
is  quite  as  provocative  of  a  strong  appetite  for  food 
in  an  adult,  as  schoolboy  days  have  ever  been  cele- 
brated for  producing  among  the  young.  Most  lit- 
erary men  accordingly  eat  too  much  ;  and  hence 

*  The  word  supper  has  come  by  modern  perverseness  to  bear,  as  a 
heavy  meal,  in  its  distinctive  sense,  exactly  the  opposite  meaning  to 
its  original  signification.  Sop,  soup,  sup  and  supper  are  all  of  one 
root,  and  refer  to  the  use  of  a  light  broth  for  the  evening  meal.  Mod- 
ern invention,  not  to  call  it  modern  depravity,  has  substituted  for 
such  a  simple,  healthy,  hygienic  habit  the  custom  of  eating,  in  cake 
and  sweetmeats,  the  most  concentrated  food  that  is  used  through  all 
the  day,  and  so  prepared  as  to  tempt  cue  by  its  agreeableness  to  eat 
more  than  he  needs  of  any  sort  of  food,  and  that  when  the  stomach 
is  under  its  greatest  disability. 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  261 

comes  in  such  cases,  and  not  from  a  mere  sedentary 
occupation  as  so  often  supposed,  that  special  class 
of  temptations  before  which  men  of  quiet,  retired 
habits  of  life  have  so  many  times  fallen.  A  full 
bodily  habit  as  such  is  favorable  to  no  high  attain- 
ments, in  heart  *  or  mind.  Some  when  about  to 
make  a  great  mental  effort  feed  themselves  to  the 
full  with  highly-seasoned  food,  so  as  to  stimulate 
the  brain  the  better  to  action  :  as  Pitt  is  said  to 
have  done  with  frequency  ;  and  who  died  accord- 
ingly, as  might  have  been  expected,  of  apoplexy,  in 
his  early  manhood.  Others  in  the  same  way  seek 
excitation  from  stimulating  drinks,  instead  of  the 
stimulus  of  strong,  healthy,  holy  thought.  All 
such  expedients  are  of  short-lived  efficacy  ;  and  the 
disposition  to  resort  to  them  shows,  that  both  the 
mind  and  heart  of  him  who  does  it  have  lost  the 
virgin-purity  of  their  own  conscious  duty  and 
power. 

On  one  other  point  also  justice  to  the  bodily  in- 
terests of  the  Christian  student  demands  a  word 
here  :  the  use  in  any  form  of  the  filthy  and  poison- 
ous drug,  tobacco.  Well  does  every  observing 
teacher  know,  who  is  not  himself  caught  in  its 
snare,  that  it  is  a  wonderful  ruiner  of  health  and 
character  in  the  young.  In  one  class  of  cases,  it 

*  Let  him   who  doubts  this  consult  the  following  passages   of 
Scripture :  Jeremiah  v.  7,  8  ;  Ezekiel  xvi.  49. 


262  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

operates  to  deaden  the  vital  energies  and  to  make 
the  mental  perceptions,  the  memory  and  the  will, 
all  slow  and  feeble  in  their  action.  In  those  of 
another  style  of  temperament  it  unsettles  the  nerves, 
so  as  to  constantly  excite  the  mind  to  disorderly 
conduct.  Could  a  true  summation  he  made  of  all 
the  evil  influences  of  this  revolting  habit  on  the 
health  and  longevity  of  each  generation  that  uses 
it,  the  sight  would  be  one  for  frightfulness  like  a 
vision  of  those  pyramids  of  skulls  that  savage 
princes  in  Asia  in  former  days  sometimes  delighted 
in  piling  up,  at  the  end  of  a  life  spent  in  extermi- 
nating their  species,  as  their  proof  that  they  had 
not  been  remiss  in  their  hellish  work.  But  the 
ruin  of  health  by  the  use  of  tobacco  is  but  a  faint 
type  of  the  greater  ruin,  occasioned  to  the  charac- 
ter and  intellect  of  those  who  use  it.  To  the  young 
especially,  the  elements  of  whose  bodily  growth  and 
strength  are  in  such  a  state  of  flux,  and  so  im- 
pressible by  slight  causes,  for  good  or  evil,  the  use 
of  such  an  active  poison  is  exceedingly  injurious. 
Teachers,  by  an  extended  and  constant  comparison 
of  many  youthful  constitutions,  and  the  habits  of 
those  possessing  them,  have  experiences  and  con- 
victions on  this  subject  that  fall  but  little  within 
the  range  of  a  physician's  observation.  They  also 
often  see  the  evil  effects  of  its  use  by  adults,  in  the 
sallow  faces,  stinted  forms  and  languid  airs  of  their 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN     SCHOLAR.  263 

pupils  ;  who  thus  bear  about  with  them  the  heredi- 
tary marks  of  their  father's  folly,  and  that  in  grow- 
ing fulness  of  manifestation,  as  child  after  child  of 
such  a  parent  comes  under  their  care.  The  devo- 
tee to  tobacco  voluntarily  unmans  his  own  will  of 
all  its  native,  divinely-endowed  sovereignty  over  the 
other  elements  of  his  nature,  by  his  self-subjection, 
to  such  a  habit.  He  who  once  felt  that  he  could  do 
any  thing  great  or  good,  however  difficult,  now  suc- 
cumbs, with  paralytic  self-prostration,  before  this 
idol-habit,  and  says  that  he  cannot  relinquish  it,  al- 
though he  is  conscious  of  its  injuriousness. 

He  who  conforms  to  the  principles  here  advo- 
cated may  be  sure  of  being  able  to  realize  eight 
hours  daily  of  earnest  study,  at  the  lowest  calcula- 
tion ;  not  only  without  damage  to  his  bodily 
strength,  but  also  with  positive  advantage  to  it. 
Study  is  a  thing  of  zeal :  but  zeal  does  not  brook 
the  idea  of  having  time  doled  out  to  it  sparingly, 
any  more  than  does  avarice  gold,  or  ambition,  hon- 
or. 

5thly.  He  must  appropriate  to  himself,  natu- 
rally, thankfully  and  joyously,  all  the  aids,  stimu- 
lations, treasures  and  pleasures,  which  God  has  ex- 
pressly and  bountifully  provided  for  him,  as  his 
portion  of  good  cheer  under  the  sun. 

Nature,  providence  and  life  are  all  contrived, 
with  superabounding  appliances  for  such  a  result, 


264  THE    TEUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

not  only  to  the  one  idea,  objectively  to  them,  of  de- 
veloping man  into  all  "  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily,"  but  also  to  the  idea,  subjectively  too,  on 
their  part,  of  furnishing  him  with  every  resource 
for  strength,  refreshment  and  triumph,  that  he  can 
need  or  desire  to  find  in  the  surrounding  universe. 
.Our  powers  of  attainment  are  made  vast  enough, 
not  only  to  take  in  that  heritage  of  "  all  things  " 
which  the  Scriptures  declare  to  be  "  ours  ; "  but 
even  God  Himself,  the  All  in  all,  to  whom  all  the 
worlds  that  He  has  made  are  but  bubbles,  floating 
upon  the  ocean- surface  of  His  being.  If  any  one's 
heart  therefore  is  empty  of  living  waters,  it  is  be- 
cause he  himself  has  broken  the  pitcher  ;  while 
standing  by  the  fountain  overflowing  from  above. 
God  has  given  us  kindly  many  wants,  that  they 
might  be  all  so  many  natural  voices  within  the  re- 
cesses of  our  being,  crying  after  Him  :  so  that  our 
very  wants  are  purposely  constituted,  as  links  to 
bind  us  more  consciously  and  strongly  to  Himself, 
their  willing  and  their  sole  supply. 

He  is  always  in  the  lavishness  of  his  beneficence, 
under  perpetual  restraint  in  its  outflow  :  never  as 
gracious  as  he  would  be  :  for  want  of  preparation 
for  his  benefits.  Let  then  each  one  open  his  whole 
nature  to  the  manifold  streams  of  his  bounty  ;  and 
the  very  gladsomeness  of  God's  nature  will  run 
through,  and  overrun  all  the  deep  and  many  water- 


THE     TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  265 

courses  of  his  soul.  If  any  one  upon  earth  ought 
to  be  a  man  of  buoyant  spirits,  and  of  vaulting 
moods  of  mind,  with  the  very  light  of  Heaven  al- 
ways burning  brightly  in  his  heart  and  eye,  it  is  the 
Christian  scholar.  For  he  sees  not  merely  the  ex- 
terior of  things,  as  others  do  only,  but  also  their 
deep  interior,  for  which  all  that  is  without  was 
made,  as  a  mere  form  for  the  precious  contents  with- 
in. He  is  a  thinker,  searching  after  all  hidden 
things  ;  and  his  eye  is  trained  to  look  beneath  the 
surface  and  behind  the  vail.  And  what  numberless 
springs  of  perpetual  exhilaration  has  God  estab- 
lished in  his  nature  and  circumstances,  for  the  daily 
excitement  and  refreshment  of  his  heart,  in  the 
gratifications  of  bodily  sense,  the  beauties  of  nature, 
the  hilariousness  of  children,  the  activities  of  busi- 
ness, the  discoveries  of  the  age,  the  march  of  pub- 
lic events,  the  intercourse  of  friends,  the  pleasures 
of  thought  and  of  personal  improvement  in  knowl- 
edge, character,  power  and  usefulness,  the  glory, 
honor  and  beauty  of  a  life  of  service  to  God  and  of 
good  to  man,  and  all  the  deep,  sweet  satisfactions 
of  faith  and  hope  and  worship,  in  the  inner  sanc- 
tuary of  the  soul. 

And  is  such  an  one  to  sit  down,  weary  and  way- 
worn, on  the  pathway  of  life,  on  which  prophets  and 
apostles  and  the  Son  of  God  Himself  have  walked, 

amid  many  persecutions,  with  exulting  footsteps, 
12 


266  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

towards  the  skies  ?  Is  this  the  man  to  be  found 
moping  over  the  stage  of  this  world,  everywhere  red 
with  the  martyr-blood  of  the  noble  men  that  have 
been  here  before  him,  with  heavy  eyes  and  drawling 
speech,  as  if  nowhere  able  to  find  any  thing  that 
can  captivate  or  interest  his  leaden  soul ! 

Some  restrain  by  theory  the  natural  leapings  of 
the  heart,  whether  in  the  playfulness  of  sport  or  in 
energy  of  action,  towards  things  without,  as  well  as 
all  its  own  natural  gushings  up  of  life  within. 
More,  by  cold  neglect  of  both  God  and  themselves, 
allow  the  garden  of  the  soul,  made  to  be  at  all 
times  full  of  the  flowers  and  fruits  and  sweet  wa- 
ters and  reviving  airs  and  songs  of  the  paradise 
above  :  to  become  a  wilderness  of  weeds,  full  of  all 
dark,  damp  places  and  noxious  miasms  and  hideous 
noises.  Joy,  God  made  to  be  the  very  pulse  of  im- 
mortality ;  and  "  the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  our 
strength/'  Let  then  the  scholar  delight  himself 
and  honor  his  God,  by  always  drinking  to  the  full 
of  the  cup  of  sweets  which  God  has  lovingly  placed 
in  his  hands.  And  let  him  not  wonder  if  he  loses 
his  health  and  spirits,  and  reason  even,  in  under- 
taking to  pursue  his  own  pathway,  ascefically, 
through  life,  rejecting,  under  the  holy  name  of 
prudence  or  religion,  the  natural  aids  and  stimula- 
tions with  which  God  has  purposely  endowed  him 


THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  267 

for  the  successful  conduct  of  his  interests  and  his 
duties. 

In  the  view  taken  thus  far  of  the  true  Christian 
Scholar,  he  has  stood  before  our  thoughts,  rather  in 
the  strength  and  beauty  of  his  ripened  manhood, 
than  in  the  more  early  and  formative  period  of  his 
history.  And  yet  it  has  been  our  constant  en- 
deavor, to  remember  also  the  wants  of  those  who 
are  just  beginning  to  open  their  eyes,  consciously, 
upon  the  sphere  and  work  of  true  scholarship,  as 
they  are,  and  who,  seeing  them  in  their  real  aspects, 
yet  firmly  if  not  eagerly  have  cast  in  their  lot 
thither  for  life.  A  thought  or  two  to  this  class  of 
readers  and  we  have  done. 

Let  the  student  at  school  or  in  college  cultivate, 
at  all  times,  the  most  genial,  honorable,  manly  style 
of  feeling  and  conduct  towards  his  associates.  It 
is  often  said  that  boys,  not  having  learned  those  re- 
finements of  duplicity  or  disguise  which  their  sen- 
iors are  often  so  expert  in  assuming,  under  the 
names  of  etiquette,  policy  or  shrewdness,  show  the 
depravity  of  human  nature  in  deeper  and  darker 
streaks  than  others.  Certain  is  it  that  the  current 
inward  history,  at  the  present  time,  of  most  of  our 
colleges  would  not  enable  us  to  make  any  improve- 
ment in  the  statement  concerning  them.  How 
many  systematic  and  traditionary  meannesses  are 
rife  in  them  !  Close,  selfish,  contemptuous  and 


268  THE    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR. 

contemptible  cliques  abound.  Some  of  a  class-sort 
and  others  pertaining  to  secret  societies.  Pasqui- 
nades, burlesque-schemes  and  ribald  songs,  aimed 
at  the  students  and  professors  alike,  are  printed  and 
circulated  even  on  public  occasions  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  the  college  ;  and  the  atmosphere  of 
many  of  our  colleges  is  hot  all  the  time  with  class- 
pretensions,  society-rivalries,  personal  bickerings, 
low  and  even  dangerous  tricks  on  the  more  simple, 
and  all  the  terrors,  at  times,  of  organized  rowdyism. 
In  what  style  now  should  the  true  Christian  scholar 
deport  himself,  amid  such  scenes  ?  He  has  cer- 
tainly a  rare  opportunity  for  showing  the  heroic 
beauty  of  real  self-respect,  and  of  gentle  and  gener- 
ous conduct  towards  all  around  him.  Let  him  scorn 
all  sympathy  with  every  form  of  social  selfishness, 
however  gilded.  If  in  after-life  he  would  be  a  true 
Christian  philanthropist,  or  patriot,  or  even  gentle- 
man, let  him  be  careful  to  possess  the  same  spirit 
and  enact  the  same  deeds  now.  For  after-life,  like 
after-growth,  is  but  a  larger  development  of  the 
initial  forms  and  processes  which  preceded  it. 

Let  him  in  every  way  escape  the  first  establish- 
ment in  his  heart  of  that  evil  egoism,  in  which  one 
contents  himself  always  with  walking  in  robes  be- 
fore the  glass  of  his  own  consciousness,  and  is  care- 
less of  every  thing  that  does  not  pertain,  in  some 
form,  to  himself  or  his  image. 


THE    TKUE    CHRISTIAN    SCHOLAR.  269 

He  who  realizes,  whether  young  or  old,  the 
character  of  the  true  Christian  student  in  this 
world,  in  his  own  person,  will  wear  a  crown  of 
honor  here  below,  and  a  crown  of  glory  above  in 
heaven. 


V. 


THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRIS- 
TIAN  EDUCATION  WITH  THE  PROGRESS 
AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


Y. 


THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  HIGHER  CHRIS- 
TIAN  EDUCATION  WITH  THE  PROGRESS 
AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

THE  people  :  the  good  of  the  people  :  the  pro- 
gress and  privileges  of  the  people  :  these  precious 
phrases  jingle  in  many  ears,  like  mere  words  of 
cant :  they  have  been  so  often  and  so  cruelly  used, 
to  adorn  the  ostentatious  but  broken  promises  of 
demagogues.  And  yet  they  are  the  chosen  watch- 
words of  Christianity,  and  of  all  men  who  are 
really  aiming  at  the  advancement  of  the  species,  in 
whatever  nation  and  under  whatever  name.  One 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  touching  records  of 
Christ's  felt  influence  upon  our  common  humanity, 
as  he  came  in  direct  visible  contact  with  it,  espe- 
cially as  contrasted  with  the  fact  of  his  crucifixion 
by  a  wicked  minority  of  the  religious  and  civil  offi- 
cials of  the  day  banded  together  against  him,  is  one 
indicating  the  hearty  responsiveness  of  the  masses 

to  whom  he  spoke  of  his  own  love  and  of  the 
12* 


274          THE    HIGHER   CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

Father's,  and  showed  it  to  them  in  his  works  :  the 
simple  statement  which  so  many  read,  without  ever 
feeling  its  deep  sweet  heart-sense  ;  in  which  he 
who  was  "  the  Desire  of  all  nations  "  was  practi- 
cally recognized  as  such  :  "  the  common  people 
heard  him  gladly/'  Here  was  earth's  according 
strain  of  feeling,  in  harmony  with  the  song  of  the 
angels  to  the  shepherds  :  "  Glory  to  God,  in  the 
highest  ;  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men  ; " 
and  in  unconscious  but  appreciative  answer  to 
Christ's  own  joyous  statement  of  the  divine  charac- 
ter and  signature  of  his  work,  in  the  world  :  "to 
the  poor  the  gospel  is  preached."  Those  melodies, 
which  are  the  great  common  beatings  of  the  hu- 
man heart  voiced  to  the  ear,  and  which  every  one 
therefore  instinctively  loves  to  hear  and  loves  to 
sing,  have  in  them  beyond  all  others  the  soul  of 
music.  That  poetry,  whose  strains  awaken  the 
most  numerous  echoes  in  the  greatest  multitude  of 
listening  ears  young  and  old,  ignorant  and  learned, 
contains  in  such  a  fact  the  proof  that  it  possesses 
most  of  what  is  truly  beautiful  or  sublime.  Those 
elements  of  our  being,  in  which  we  all  agree,  are 
far  higher  and  nobler  than  any  in  which  we  differ. 
That  style  of  religion,  therefore,  not  only  but  also 
of  education,  which  is  most  adapted  to  every  man's 
wants,  and  whose  results  combine  at  the  most 
points  and  in  the  most  decisive  ways,  with  the 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    275 

greatest  progress  of  the  age  and  of  the  race,  is  most 
true  and  heavenly,  both  in  its  outward  bearings  and 
in  its  own  inward  nature. 

Diffusiveness  of  every  thing  good  to  the  widest 
possible  limits  is  the  genius  of  Christianity.  Its 
very  life  is  love.  Giving  is  the  spirit  of  all  its  aims 
and  movements.  Its  perpetual  history  is  perpetual 
benefaction.  So  leavened  has  modern  society  be- 
come with  its  influence,  in  all  forms  and  directions, 
that  the  utmost  possible  popularization  of  every  ad- 
.vantage  is  the  felt  tendency  of  the  times,  in  every 
quarter.  "  Knowledge,"  now,  therefore,  "  runs  to 
and  fro,"  both  by  the  impulse  of  those  who  have  it 
.to  bestow,  and  the  importunate  invitation  of  those 
who  long  to  receive  it.  The  poor  are  princes  now 
in  power  and  privilege  :  "  the  child  dies  an  hundred 
years  old." 

Not  by  chance,  or  for  fashion's  sake,  has  the 
title  of  this  closing  essay  of  the  series  here  pre- 
sented been  selected  ;  but  from  glad  sympathy  with 
its  spirit.  That  high  truth  placed  by  God's  own 
hand  in  ours,  as  one  of  the  great  standards  of  hu- 
man faith  and  feeling  appointed  by  Him  for  our 
guidance,  that  "  no  man  liveth  to  himself  and  no 
111  an  dieth  to.  himself/'  we  do  not  and  cannot  gaze 
at  as  a  stern  necessity,  from  which  we  would  fain 
escape,  or  as  a  mere  beautiful  abstraction,  to  be  ad- 
mired for  a  little  while  and  then  forgotten.  We 


276          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

rejoice  in  it,  on  the  contrary,  as  one  of  Heaven's 
own  banners,  and  would  bear  it  exultingly  over  all 
the  earth. 

It  has  passed  into  a  proverb,  from  Heathen  lips 
to  Christian  and  from  one  age  to  another,  that  "  the 
voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God/'  Their 
real  voice  is  His  voice  :  not  indeed  their  vote  al- 
ways ;  although  this,  when  they  comprehend  the 
true  issues  at  stake,  is  quite  sure  to  be  full  of  the 
fire  and  flash  of  that  common  sense,  which  is  in 
man's  heart  the  glow  of  the  same  light  of  truth, 
that  burns  with  dazzling  brightness  forever  in  the 
bosom  of  God.  But  their  uttered  wants,  their  uni- 
versal cry  or  sigh  or  desire  is  indeed  His  voice. 
That  universal  cry  is  for  light.  Their  universal 
want,  uttered  or  unexpressed,  is  love.  He  who  ad- 
dresses himself  with  all  his  energies  to  meet  it,  ele- 
vates his  own  nature,  in  thus  striving  to  elevate 
theirs  ;  and,  as  the  addition  of  human  labor  to  any 
of  the  forms  or  elements  of  matter  is  what  gives 
them  their  value,  and  the  connection  of  man  with 
any  thing  upon  earth  is  what  gives  it  its  impor- 
tance :  so,  the  effort  to  promote  the  greatest  possi- 
ble good  of  the  greatest  number  is  the  rule  of  the 
highest  virtue  ;  and  the  tendency  to  such  a  result 
is  the  sublimest  tendency  of  any  moral  action. 

To  a  careful,  earnest,  religious  spectator  of  the 
world's  condition  and  history,  two  great  facts  stand 


AND  THE  PKOGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    277 

forth  at  once  in  strong  colors  and  startling  propor- 
tions. The  first  is  this  :  that  the  world  has  come 
very  slowly  to  its  present  incomplete  stage  of  de- 
velopment. Why,  he  exclaims,  such  short  and 
measured  steps  of  progress.  The  present  civiliza- 
tion of  the  world  is  the  grand  resultant  of  the  ex- 
periences, lahors  and  attainments  of  countless  mil- 
lions, who  have  lived  their  brief  day  upon  the  earth, 
and  left  behind  them  each,  in  departing  from  it, 
their  share  of  determinative  influence  upon  its  for- 
tune and  its  fate.  And  how  mournfully  small  is 
the  aggregate  product  of  so  much  active  human 
life  !  The  other  great  fact  that  astonishes  and  sad- 
dens him,  is,  that  there  is  now  everywhere  such  a 
frightful  amount  of  talent  and  energy  lying  utterly 
unemployed  in  the  community.  The  vast  intel- 
lectual and  moral  inertia  of  the  race  at  large  : 
this  is  the  great  astounding  fact.  How  large  the 
harvest  and  how  few  the  laborers  !  While  the  pos- 
sibilities of  human  life  and  of  human  nature  are 
so  splendid,  the  ever-growing  wonder  is  that  so  few 
seem  to  feel  or  even  to  see  it.  Not  a  thousandth 
or  millionth  part  indeed  of  the  latent  spiritual 
forces  of  society  has  ever  been  continually,  or  occa- 
sionally for  any  considerable  period  of  time,  em- 
ployed on  the  ends  or  means  of  human  progress. 
The  machinery  of  society,  it  is  true,  is  ponderous 
enough  ;  but  it  stands  for  the  most  part  entirely 


278         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

still,  or  turns  but  a  few  slow  heavy  rounds,  meas- 
ured by  centuries,  instead  of  years,  and  often,  yes 
always  hitherto,  backwards  in  every  country  sooner 
or  later  as  well  as  forwards  :  so  that  civilization  has 
ever  been  migratory,  and  the  genius  of  liberty,  like 
that  of  letters,  has  been  from  the  first  a  bird  of 
passage  in  this  world,  as  well  as  a  bird  of  paradise. 
Mankind  at  large  are  marching,  and  in  all  ages 
have  marched,  over  this  earthly  stage  of  their  be- 
ing, like  an  orchestra  provided  from  above  with  all 
bright  sweet  instruments,  tuned  in  themselves  to 
God's  everlasting  praise,  which  however  they  have 
borne  unused  through  all  the  slow,  moody,  march 
of  life  :  a  great,  silent  orchestra,  trailing  in  weary 
languor  along  the  highway  of  time,  bearing  even 
their  privileges  as  burdens,  instead  of  moving  in 
:  joyous  triumph  with  loud-voiced  trumpets  and  viols, 
in  a  chorus  of  hallelujahs,  onwards  and  upwards  to 
their  Father's  house  above. 

If  ever  the  world  is  to  become,  as  it  surely  is, 
for  such  is  the  promise,  one  wide-spread  garden  of 
delights,  full  of  the  habitations  of  peace  and  praise, 
instead  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty  as  now,  so 
great  a  change  is  to  be  wrought  by  the  diffusion 
everywhere  of  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  the 
Higher  Christian  Education.  The  widest  range  of 
both  the  powers  and  results  of  Christianity  is  that 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    279 

lying  within  the  sphere  of  its  educational  resources 
and  influences. 

The  following  points  are  those  most  worthy  of 
discussion  here  : — 

I.  The  true  limits  of  the  theory  of  general  edu- 
cation, both  as  to  the  numbers  to  be  reached  by  it, 
and  the  proper  style 'of  their  education. 

II.  The  connection  of  the  Higher  Education, 
specifically,  with  all  the  lower  forms  of  general  ed- 
ucation. 

III.  The   necessity  and  beauty  of  its  being,  in 
all  its  influence  upon  the  masses,  thoroughly  and 
inspiringly  Christian. 

IV.  Some  of  the  chief  results  already  accom- 
plished by  Christian  Scholarship  in  the  world. 

I.  What  then  is  the  true  theory  of  general  ed- 
ucation ? 

Every  man  has  in  him  a  nature  worthy  of  the 
highest  possible  improvement.  However  humble 
the  lot  of  any  individual,  or  however  menial  his 
employment,  there  is  in  his  very  manhood  a  beam 
of  light  divine  that  attracts  the  gaze  of  angels,  and 
which  therefore  should  not  fall  upon  our  eyes  in 
vain.  How  is  every  thing  external  to  man  overes- 
timated in  this  world,  and  all  that  is  inwardly  vital 
to  his  essence  or  development,  as  a  man,  grossly 


280  THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

underestimated  !  So  great  is  the  soul  of  each  one, 
and  so  many  and  so  precious  are  the  germs,  now 
full  of  life  within  it,  of  a  vast  unfolding  future, 
that  the  more  difficult,  hereditary,  permanent  or 
organic,  the  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the  true  and 
enlarged  culture  of  all  its  elements  and  resources, 
the  more  should  the  state  and  the  church  and  the 
plans  of  individual  beneficence  and  enterprise  con- 
centrate their  separate  and  collected  energy  upon 
their  removal.  It  is  often  said  and  truly  that  the 
first  senses  of  all  words  were  physical,  and  that  all 
their  intellectual  and  moral  senses  are  but  figura- 
tive. Alas  !  that  the  moderns  have  so  little,  in 
practice,  outtravelled  the  ancients,  in  their  ^mate- 
rialistic  use  of  language,  as  of  the  elements  of  per- 
sonal experience  and  of  active  life,  of  which  it  is 
the  reflex  image.  Earthly-mindedness  is  a  sin  of 
far  wider  applications  than  most  suppose  ;  and  no- 
where has  its  blighting  power  been  more  felt,  than 
in  every  department  of  the  great  work  of  education. 
The  consciences  of  but  few  are  at  all  alive  to  the 
claims  of  the  uneducated  masses,  for  the  removal 
of  the  incubus  of  ignorance  that  is  upon  them,  by 
the  helpful  beneficence  of  those,  who  have  received 
from  former  generations  a  better  heritage  than 
they. 

Those  who  are  educated  for  unprofessional  em- 
ployments are,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  educated 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    281 

only  so  far  and  in  such  a  way,  as  is  supposed  need- 
ful or  desirable  for  their  best  success,  in  procuring 
the  material  advantages  of  life.  Of  the  little  num- 
ber who  enter  upon  the  courses  of  the  Higher  Edu- 
cation, but  few  ever  obtain  any  such  earnest  in- 
spiring sense  of  their  exalted  privileges,  as  to  aim, 
with  full  determined  perseverance,  at  those  results 
which  are  worthy  of  such  a  designation  ;  while  the 
small  minority,  who  may  in  a  liberal  construction 
of  the  phrase  be  included  among  those  who  have 
obtained  a  classical  education,  nearly  all  of  them 
choose  pursuits  in  the  end  that  possess  the  one  daz- 
zling, but  petty  and  perishable,  element  of  lucre. 
In  opposition  to  all  such  perversions  of  humanity, 
we  maintain  the  right  lodged  in  eveiy  man's  na- 
ture, as  divine  :  the  patent  royal  of  his  birthright 
as  a  child  of  God  :  to  the  benefits  of  the  highest 
possible  education  of  all  his  faculties.  It  is  often 
said  that  every  man  has  an  incontrovertible  right  to 
subsistence,  and  in  an  emergency  may  steal  with 
perfect  moral  impunity  rather  than  die.  But  how 
much  more  imperative  is  the  right  of  each  one  to 
all  that  light,  which  God  has  given  to  others,  indi- 
vidually or  collectively,  on  purpose  that  they  should 
bear  it  to  every  creature  through  all  the  world. 
Capital  now  has  its  foot  on  the  neck  of  labor,  be- 
cause it  is  uneducated.  Poverty  also  for  the  same 
reason  remains  too  often  hereditary  for  many  gene- 


282          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

rations.  Labor  itself,  which  is  necessary  and  hon- 
orable in  all  its  innocent  variations  and  degrees, 
becomes  without  education  a  mere  brute  employ- 
ment of  muscular  energy,  more  or  less  intellectual- 
ized  according  to  the  different  amount  of  native 
mental  strength  possessad  by  various  individuals, 
or  the  haphazard  increase  made  of  it,  by  the  force 
of  the  fortunate  accidents  or  incidents  of  their 
earthly  lot.  Labor  without  thought,  as  its  source 
and  guide,  is  like  a  blanched  rose  that  has  lost  its 
beauty  with  its  fragrance  ;  and  it  is  changed  from 
a  blessing,  as  it  is  in  itself,  into  a  practical  curse, 
.as  it  is  employed.  Labor  without  thought,  as  its 
inspiration,  is,  not  merely  not  work  as  play,  as  all 
true  toil  becomes  to  a  great  man  or  a  good  one  ; 
but  it  is  also  work  without  play.  There  is  not  an 
artisan,  the  daily  product  of  whose  hands  would 
not  be  ennobled,  as  truly  as  is  an  artist's,  by  the 
high  education  of  all  his  faculties  as  a  man,  in  re- 
ceiving a  deeper  impress  of  his  own  best  thoughts 
and  feelings  upon  it.  But  manual  labor  it  is  said 
would  become  in  such  cases  generally  distasteful. 
It  might  indeed  justly  to  all  those,  who  are  called 
in  the  noble  gifts  of  their  nature  to  a  higher  work, 
than  to  make  shoes  or  coats  or  hats  for  other  men, 
whose  position  above  theirs  is  simply  the  accident 
of  greater  pecuniary  means,  but  whose  natures  in- 
dicate that  they  should  be  cobblers  rather  than 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    283 

themselves.  In  the  divine  economy  of  the  social 
state,  some  have  leisure  purposely  allowed  them  for 
the  use  of  their  time,  in  high  and  noble  forms  of 
study,  research  and  discovery,  that  they  may  dis- 
tribute beneficently  unto  others  the  knowledge  that 
they  have  gained  for  themselves.  But  none  cer- 
tainly belong  to  the  class  appointed  of  God  to  such 
privileges,  who,  by  neglecting  them  when  offered, 
prove  themselves  unworthy  of  so  exalted  a  position. 
Multitudes  there  are  now  in  all  the  professions,  who 
openly  declare  themselves  by  their  voluntary  tor- 
pidity of  mind  entirely  unworthy  of  any  place  in 
them  :  men  of  low  aims,  the  downward  bent  of 
whose  tastes  shows  that  they  are  factitiously  placed 
above  their  level,  and  occupy  their  forced  position 
to  the  great  detriment  of  society.  And  so,  on  the 
contrary,  multitudes  follow  the  plough  and  wield 
the  sledge,  and  are  never  known  to  be  any  thing 
more  than  clever  workmen  in  wood,  or  dirt  or  iron, 
who  might  have  inspired  attending  crowds  with 
their  eloquence,  or  swayed  the  counsels  of  the 
State  with  their  wisdom,  or  led  forth  the  church  to 
victory  upon  victory  through  all  the  earth. 

The  greatest  possible  diffusion  of  true  educa- 
tion in  its  highest  forms,  for  reach  and  power,  is, 
in  conjunction  with  the  utmost  possible  diffusion 
of  religion,  the  greatest  want  of  society.  These 
combine  harmoniously  in  the  style  of  their  influence 


284         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

and  results  both  to  individuals  and  the  community 
at  large.  True  education  when  generally  diffused 
levels  the  elements  of  society  both  upwards  and 
downwards.  Those  who  gravitate  downwards,  with 
their  own  free  will,  should  not  be  held  up  by  official 
and  ecclesiastical  supports,  at  an  elevation  for  which 
they  are  not  fitted ;  while  those  who  are  capaci- 
tated to  soar  in  their  tastes  and  aims  and  achieve- 
ments, who  have  in  them  instincts  all  pointing  up- 
wards, struggling  for  free  air  and  free  motion  in  it, 
ought  to  have  an  opportunity  to  find  their  ap- 
pointed range  of  activity  and  effort. 

Popular  education  is  then,  not  only  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  interests  and  duties  of  any  commu- 
nity, but  also  one  ever-present  in  its  claims,  in  ref- 
erence both  to  voluntary  movements  in  its  own  be- 
half, and  also  to  arrangements  and  expenditures 
which  can  be  compassed  only  by  the  State.  Its 
elements,  likewise,  are  to  be  the  widest  possible 
universality  in  its  scope,  and  at  the  same  time,  all 
such  preparatives  as  promise  the  greatest  possible 
fulness  of  results. 

Not  to  be  misunderstood,  let  it  be  premised 
that  the  elevation  of  the  mass,  of  which  so  much 
is  said  as  the  ultimatum  of  social  enterprise,  is  to 
be  but  a  mass  of  individual  elevations.  The  riches 
of  mental  energy  and  attainment  possessed  by  each 
person  form,  when  aggregated,  the  great  original 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    285 

capital  of  society,  the  whole  of  which  the  perpetua- 
tion and  enlargement  of  its  own  privileges  demand 
that  it  should  always  employ  and  improve,  as  much 
as  possible.  The  largest,  fullest  and  best  education 
of  every  man  in  each  age  is  the  first  term,  on  all 
lines  of  upward  and  onward  movement,  of  which 
the  second  and  resultant  term  is  the  greatest  possi- 
ble progress  of  mankind,  in  every  generation.  The 
man  accordingly  who  has  the  opportunity  to  raise 
himself  to  loftier  degrees  of  intellectual  and  moral 
culture,  and  either  rejects  or  squanders  such  a  priv- 
ilege, is  not  merely  a  dullard,  but  a  traitor  also  to 
his  race.  He  throws  away  his  own  birthright,  and 
that  of  others  also  in  untold  numbers  in  his  own 
age  and  in  the  procession  of  the  ages  that  are  to 
follow  it,  whom  he  might  have  directly  elevated,  or 
at  least  gladdened  with  the  light  of  his  own  beau- 
tiful example,  as  a  star  that  would  never  set  with 
its  inspiring  and  guiding  influences  in  their  horizon. 
Society  is  but  a  grand,  divinely-constituted  corpora- 
tion, covering  all  countries  and  ages  ;  in  which 
every  member  owes  by  the  very  implications  of  its 
constitution  the  most  zealous  devotion  to  the  com- 
mon interests  of  all.  To  one  who  feels  the  power 
of  this  conception,  the  voiceless  centuries,  as  they 
pass  solemnly  by,  one  after  the  other,  upon  the 
stage  of  history,  stand  before  his  view,  imploring, 
with  an  agony  of  mute  eloquence  in  their  very 


286          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

looks,  the  strongest  and  warmest  thoughts,  efforts 
and  prayers  of  every  one  upon  earth,  for  himself  and 
for  those  around  him,  as  well  as  for  all  who  are  to 
come  after  him  in  long  succession. 

But  while  such  are  the  duties  and  responsibili- 
ties of  individuals  to  the  community  at  large,  so- 
ciety also  itself  owes  great  and  high  duties  to  them. 
Duties  are  mutual ;  and,  the  higher  the  powers  and 
resources  of  either  one  of  the  related  parties,  the 
higher  its  duties  to  the  other.  The  duties  of  the 
State  to  the  individual  not  only  cover  the  field  of 
personal  property,  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  but  also  those  nobler  interests  of  personal 
culture,  which,  although  so  great  in  themselves, 
governments  have  yet  hitherto  so  perseveringly  ig- 
nored. Caesar  understands  that  he  must  defend  his 
borders  from  foreign  invasion  and  therefore  provides 
fleets  and  armaments,  which,  after  possessing  them, 
he  has  usually  shown  quite  as  great  readiness  to 
use  for  purposes  of  offense  as  of  defense.  And 
what  expenditures  does  the  Demon  of  war  exact  of 
all  governments  ?  Every  ship  of  the  line  repre- 
sents in  itself  and  in  its  outfit,  it  is  said,  half  a 
million  of  dollars.  What  a  splendid  university 
with  large  privileges  would  such  a  sum  provide  ! 
and  what  a  great  constructive  influence  for  good, 
instead  of  one  destructive  to  human  life  and  hap- 
piness, would  such  an  appropriation  of  it  ensure .! 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    287 

It  would  be  repeated  on  its  own  ground  in  all  time 
to  generations  of  pupils  succeeding  one  another, 
while  the  world  should  last,  and,  through  each  gen- 
eration itself,  over  all  the  earth  to  multitudes  around 
them,  whom  their  lives  and  labors  should  reach  for 
good.  Its  very  name  university,  if  objectively  in- 
terpreted, would  be  a  symbol  of  its  benign  bear- 
ing, compared  with  the  Tartarean  names,  that  are 
generally  so  aptly  chosen  to  denominate  those  great 
floating  arsenals  of  death,  over  which  yet,  although 
costing  so  much  money  in  fact  and  so  much  blood, 
in  designed  if  not  probable  prospect,  not  only  the 
State  but  the  community  also  rejoice  with  national 
pride. 

The  ends  of  the  Higher  Education  are  many 
and  great.  Private  resources  cannot  of  themselves 
procure  them  :  they  must  be  furnished  by  the  State. 
And  the  State  should  do  it  liberally,  as  a  compen- 
sation for  the  services  which  it  receives  from  edu- 
cated men  in  two  ways  :  one  general,  in  the  help 
that  they  furnish  to  the  stability  of  the  social  state 
as  such  ;  and  the  other  specific,  in  the  fact  that 
nearly  all  the  managers  of  the  affairs  of  state  have 
been  themselves  modelled  and  equipped  for  their 
stations  in  such  institutions.  The  State  should 
therefore  also  favor  and  assist  the  higher  institu- 
tions of  the  land,  as  a  matter  of  its  own  protection 
and  honor  in  the  future.  As  in  regular  military 


288          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

academies  are  prepared  the  officers  of  the  army  and 
the  navy,  so  from  our  colleges  and  universities  are  to 
come  in  all  time  the  officers  of  State.  The  advan- 
tages of  the  Higher  Education  should  then  be  facile 
to  every  one,  as,  from  the  great  community  of  all 
men,  are  to  be  developed  to  the  highest  eminence 
under  proper  private  and  public  training,  the  few 
who  are  really  capacitated  and  called  of  God  to 
guide,  and  by  their  guidance  to  bless,  the  rest  of 
mankind.  And,  while  we  would  not  have  them 
presented  to  the  poor,  as  if  they  were  conferring  a 
favor  upon  the  State  to  receive  them  and  much 
more  to  accept  a  gratuitous  support  in  doing  so  ;  as 
if  universities  themselves  and  the  cause  that  they 
represent  were  reduced  to  straits  and  would  beg 
even  beggars  to  pity  them  ;  yet  every  bar  to  the 
aspiring  and  energetic  and  hopeful  should  be  re- 
moved, who  desire  to  obtain  a  true  and  large  edu- 
cation, and,  at  the  same  time,  every  stimulating 
and  inspiring  encouragement  should  be  furnished 
them  to  pursue  a  high  course  of  personal  self-im- 
provement. 

Our  present  college-system  has  grown  up  to  be 
what  it  is,  under  the  pressure  of  our  felt  wants  as  a 
people,  and  has  in  its  general  outlines  the  variety 
and  practical  adaptedness  to  the  demands  of  pro- 
fessional and  active  life  in  this  country,  that  the 
progressive  experience  of  two  centuries  has  sug- 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    289 

gested.  Its  great  defects  are  want  of  breadth,  as 
well  as  of  elevation,  as  a  piece  of  educational  struc- 
ture, and  still  more  the  inward  want  of  that  living 
enthusiasm  and  energy  in  its  management,  which 
can  come  only  from  those  two  grand  elements,  high 
intellectual  culture  and  glowing  personal  religion, 
combined,  and  intensified  in  their  action,  one  with 
the  other.  Our  colleges  are  many  of  them  but 
mere  academies  ;  and  not  a  few  are  second-rate  at 
that.  As  some  say,  they  have  been  multiplied  be- 
yond all  proper  bounds  ;  but  so  think  not  we.  In 
the  State  of  New  York,  it  is  true  that  there  are 
not  only  two  in  its  chief  city  ;  but  that  also  in 
every  important  city,  or  in  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood, throughout  the  State  from  Albany  to  Buf- 
falo, there  is  a  college  existing  in  full  form,  or  else 
one  either  just  coming  into  being  or  just  going  out 
of  it.  The  number  in  our  whole  country,  now 
claiming  to  be  alive  and  to  deserve  public  atten- 
tion, is  somewhere  near  a  thousand.  The  argu- 
ment brought  against  them,  by  hasty  reasoners  upon 
their  past  history  and  their  future  prospects,  is  the 
same  as  that  used  in  reference  to  the  multiplica- 
tion of  different  denominational  enterprises  in  small 
towns  :  that  their  very  number  weakens  the  working 
force  of  them  all  ;  and  that  therefore  the  strength  of 
their  own  resources,  and  of  public  feeling  towards 

them,  should  be  concentrated  upon  a  few,  which 
13 


290         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

might  be  in  consequence  greatly  enlarged  and  per- 
fected. No  !  a  thousand  times  no  !  let  them  be 
multiplied  still  more,  as  surely  they  will  be,  from 
the  action  of  local  and  denominational  causes,  if 
no  other  ;  and  let  their  courses  of  study  be  ex- 
tended and  elevated  more  and  more.  Private  en- 
thusiasm and  enterprise,  and  quite  generally  those 
of  a  patriotic  and  religious  source,  have  founded 
them,  with  a  wise  and  earnest  forecast  of  the  fu- 
ture. The  real  fault  to  be  found  with  them  does 
not  respect  their  number  but  their  quality,  as  well 
as  the  mistake  so  generally  made  concerning  their 
appropriate  place  and  function,  in  the  machine ry  of 
education.  Our  colleges,  in  their  present  type, 
which  is  truly  adapted  and  American,  should  not 
be  regarded  :  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  of 
the  foremost,  whose  history,  capabilities  and  locality 
admirably  fit  them  for  a  full  and  facile  transforma- 
tion into  real  universities  :  as  answering,  in  their 
style  of  functions  and  resources,  the  style  of  our 
wants  as  a  people.  They  should  occupy  relatively 
but  the  place  of  the  German  gymnasium,  and 
should  be  perfected  for  such  relations  far  beyond 
what  they  now  are,  in  fulness  and  exactness  of  drill, 
as  well  as  in  the  finish  of  the  results  obtained  by 
their  workmanship  ;  while  over  them  should  tower, 
story  above  story,  the  higher  university-course  of 
study,  in  which  men,  not  boys  as  in  the  colleges, 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    291 

might  ascend  to  the  loftiest  attainments,  under  skil- 
ful guides,  in  all  the  noblest  departments  of  human 
philosophy,  learning  and  industry.  The  scale  of 
our  educational  facilities  would  thus  become  in  ad- 
dition to  our  strictly  professional  schools  four-fold  : 
as  described  by  common  schools,  academies  or  high 
schools,  colleges  and  universities.  One  university 
at  least  should  stand,  like  a  pillar  of  light,  in  every 
State  :  the  glory  of  the  community  and  the  con- 
stant object  of  its  care  :  on  which  the  watchful 
eyes  of  the  State  should  be  ever  set,  and  to  which 
its  hand  of  bounty  should  always  be  extended. 
Bounty  we  have  said,  with  all  carefulness,  instead 
of  patronage  :  for  such  an  institution  patronizes  the 
State  far  more  than  the  State  can  patronize  it. 

The  university  should  thus  be  distinct  entirely 
from  the  college,  representing  in  completeness  the 
higher  forms  of  education,  as  such,  and  the  higher 
facilities  for  obtaining  them  :  so  that  its  provisions 
should  be  all  of  the  most  ample  and  inviting  kind, 
for  those  who  have  run  with  zeal  and  thoroughness 
the  previous  curriculum  of  college-life.  None  but 
men  of  really  high  scholarly  attainments  should 
have  license  to  enter  upon  its  privileges.  Its  gates 
should  be  practically  so  closed  against  all  who 
have  been  idlers  in  their  preliminary  courses  of 
study,  by  its  inexorable  requirements  of  a  certain, 
high,  specific  style  of  preparation,  that  none  but 


292          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

men  of  glowing,  cultivated  powers  of  mind  should 
ever  be  found  dwelling  within  its  sacred  enclosure. 
Here,  the  topmost  heights  of  science,  philosophy, 
philology,  criticism  and  taste  should  be  eagerly 
traversed,  by  those  who  have  the  time  and  the  dis- 
position to  scale  them.  Here,  faithful  earnest 
guides  should  have  their  habitation,  full  of  all  large 
stories  and  legends  even,  if  ycu  will,  about  the 
wonders  of  the  way,  for  those  whose  instinct  and 
determination  to  climb,  and  in  climbing  to  conquer, 
all  the  difficulties  that  lie  before  them,  is  unceasing 
and  indomitable. 

The  true  university-course  for  this  land  and  age 
should  be  no  accidental  or  servile  imitation  of  that 
existing  in  any  part  of  Europe,  and  which  has 
grown  up  there  out  of  the  soil  of  other  climes  and 
other  ages,  and  of  forms  of  government  and  of  so- 
ciety altogether  different  in  their  elements,  relations 
and  demands  from  ours.  It  should  be  rather  the 
product  of  our  own  land  and  of  our  own  age,  and 
full  of  the  living  spirit  of  the  times.  So  conformed 
to  our  present  actual  condition  and  wants  should  it 
be,  that  it  should  seem  not  only  to  have  been  sug- 
gested, but  required,  by  them.  It  should  be  in 
other  words  American  and  as  much  above,  in  the 
scope  and  height  of  its  utilities,  the  institutions  of 
the  old  world,  as  our  style  of  government  and  of  so- 
cial life  is  above  theirs. 


A.ND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    293 

Our  colleges,  also,  we  have  said  should  be  per- 
fected into  a  state  of  far  higher  disciplinary  appli- 
ances and  privileges.  They  should  begin  at  a  point 
at  least  midway  in  their  present  course  :  requiring 
a  large,  deep  and  thorough  style  of  preparation  for 
entrance  upon  it,  in  previous  academic  qualifica- 
tions. Their  chief  drill  should  be  drill  in  the  study 
of  language  ;  and  the  chosen  field  for  it  should 
cover  both  the  ancient  and  modern  languages, 
which  should  be  thoroughly  mastered  in  all  their 
varied  elements,  grammatical  and  lexical,  in  every 
possible  form  of  research,  syntactical,  philosophical, 
philological  and  rhetorical.  Through  six  years  the 
laborious  student  should  be  led,  as  on  an  average 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  years  of  age,  through 
all  the  mazes  of  grammar,  etymology,  prosody  and 
accentuation  in  the  classical  languages,  as  well  as 
through  the  more  comprehensive  elemants  of  criti- 
cism, logic  and  rhetoric,  and  all  the  higher  princi- 
ples of  both  philosophic  and  aesthetic  culture  in  the 
most  effective  and  attractive  forms  in  which  they 
occur  in  both  ancient  and  modern  authorship  ;  as 
well  as,  for  a  proper  commingling  of  the  abstract 
with  the  concrete,  through  a  wide-  accompanying 
range  of  mathematical  and  scientific  exploration 
and  analysis.  The  great  objects  ever  to  be  kept  in 
view  should  be  twofold  :  the  most  complete  and 
harmonious  discipline  of  all  the  mental  -powers  as 


294          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

such,  and  the  careful  hahituation  of  the  mind  from 
the  first  to  great  activity  and  energy,  in  the  highest 
of  all  forms  of  mental  productiveness,  the  art  of 
original  composition. 

Our  academies  and  high  schools  need  also,  like 
our  colleges,  thorough  renovation  and  enlargement 
in  their  courses  of  study  and  instruction.  To  what 
a  lamentable  degree  have  they  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  novices  only,  who,  in  their  unripe  manhood,  have 
been  also  quite  unfledged  for  the  work  that  they 
have  assumed,  by  any  original  taste  or  special  prep- 
aration for  it.  For  mere  temporary  purposes  have 
they  undertaken  it  ;  and  therefore  it  has  lost  its 
attractions  to  their  dull  eyes,  when  those  objects 
have  been  gained.  There  is  nothing  more  farcical, 
and  therefore,  since  the  interests  involved  are  so 
tremendous,  there  is  no  social  abuse  more  great,  at 
least  in  our  Northern  States  and  in  respectable  so- 
ciety, than  the  present  prevalent  mode  of  conduct- 
ing academical  instruction  in  our  country.  Colleges 
cannot  advance  their  requirements  as  fast  as  some 
of  them  would,  because  of  the  continued  low  tide 
of  influences  and  results  in  the  preparatory  schools. 
Few  of  all  who  enter  the  academies  of  the  land 
ever  acquire  while  there  a  taste  for  subsequent  clas- 
sical study.  What  a  proof  of  the  fact  is  this  :  that 
from  all  the  hundreds  of  academies  that  have  been 
at  different  times,  the  supplying  fountains,  from  all 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    295 

quarters,  for  Yale  college,  only  some  seven  thousand 
graduates  have  been  gleaned  by  that  venerable  in- 
stitution, during  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  years 
past,  as  the  contribution  of  educated  men  so  called 
which  it  has  been  able  to  make  to  the  community  ! 
And  how  few  of  those  who  have  passed  through  the 
college-course  have  either  entered  upon  it,  or  come 
out  from  it,  true,  earnest,  successful  scholars  ! 
Where  are  we  to  look  for  the  right  explanation  of 
these  facts  ?  In  several  directions  indeed  ;  but 
nowhere  so  conclusively  as  to  the  courses  of  pre- 
paratory training,  and  the  style  of  the  men  that 
have  managed  them,  and  of  the  influences  that 
they  have  breathed  or  rather  have  not  breathed 
upon  them.  In  the  plastic,  formative  period  of 
preparation  for  the  higher  studies  of  early  manhood, 
is  the  decisive  spot  where  the  horoscope  of  the  stu- 
dent's future  is  cast.  Here  his  aspirations  acquire 
their  full  afflatus,  and  here  his  mental  and  moral 
habits  their  upward  or  downward  bent.  Although 
others  may  afterwards  prune  a  tree  to  larger  fruit- 
fulness,  or  trim  it  into  a  shape  of  greater  beauty, 
yet  he  who  first  sets  itj  and  determines  the  soil  and 
position  in  which  it  is  to  grow,  and  all  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  its  vital  energy,  stamps  most  of  all  his 
own  directive  will  upon  its  form  and  stature,  and 
upon  the  future  fulness  of  its  flowers  and  fruits. 
In  the  department  of  educational  labor,  occupied 


296  THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

by  select  schools,  academies  and  high  schools,  is  the 
only  ground  that  is  left  open,  or  that  should  be,  to 
the  force  and  skill  of  private  enterprise,  which  is 
so  effective  in  turning  all  the  other  wheels  of  social 
progress,  and  which  should  also  have  scope  in  the 
field  of  education  for  its  wonder-working  power 
when  fully  employed,  as  here  it  does  possess  in  suf- 
ficiency. It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  cheering 
signs  of  the  times,  that  so  many  more  than  for- 
merly have  been  impelled  :  some  from  one  motive 
and  some  from  another,  but  many  indeed  by  high 
patriotic  and  Christian  impulses  as  well  as  by  per- 
sonal tastes  and  the  inspirations  of  genius  :  to  en- 
ter upon  this  grand  work  of  earnest,  personal  ser- 
vice to  their  age,  by  their  own  individual  labors  in 
the  cause  of  education,  as  God  may  prosper  them. 
And  the  great  pecuniary  success  of  so  many,  who 
have  had  the  right  qualifications  for  obtaining  it, 
is  not  an  insignificant  item  in  the  amount  of  gen- 
eral good  realized  from  their  lives,  in  adorning  with 
the  outward  symbols  of  prosperity  a  profession 
which  has  long  been  depreciated  in  the  public  treat- 
ment of  it,  far  below  its  proper  level  which  is  equal 
with  the  highest. 

And  the  common  schools,  are  they  not  indeed 
common  enough?  What  immense  congregations 
of  pupils  are  often  gathered  together  in  them,  un- 
der one  roof,  numbering  in  our  large  cities  not 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    297 

merely  several  hundreds,  as  is  usual,  but  a  thousand 
and  more,  at  times  :  a  fact  which  several  fearfully 
destructive  school-panics  from  the  alarm  of  fire 
would  have  sufficed,  one  would  think,  to  have  for 
ever  abolished.  But  is  there  any  end  to  the  evils, 
that  a  spirit  of  parsimony  will  either  contrive  or 
endure  ?  And  what  should  be  said  farther  of  the 
poor  economy  of  placing  one  male  teacher  only  in 
such  a  monstrous  educational  establishment  as  its 
commanding  officer,  with  a  number  of  subordinate 
young  females  around  him,  as  his  coadjutors  ;  who 
are  themselves  poorly  compensated,  although  ex- 
pected to  do  much  work  ;  and  many  of  whom  have 
become  teachers,  instead  of  seamstresses,  only  be- 
cause the  compensation  was  greater,  and  not  from 
any  warm  sense  of  the  glory  and  beauty  of  an  ear- 
nest educator's  life,  or  with  any  accompanying  con- 
sciousness of  disciplined  preparation  for  undertaking 
its  duties  !  The  principal  also  himself  even  of  such 
mammoth  common  schools  is  put  upon  a  salary,  on 
which  with  the  utmost  carefulness  he  can  barely 
live  ;  and  therefore  men  of  collegiate  education  feel 
that  they  can  do  better,  than  to  accept  such  labo- 
rious but  unrewarded  positions  ;  unrewarded  either 
in  honor  or  money,  and  so  crowded  with  all  sorts  of 
necessary  generalities  of  arrangement  and  of  in- 
struction, as  to  give  but  very  unsatisfactory  oppor- 
tunities of  real  usefulness  to  their  incumbents. 
18* 


298         THE     HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

How,  under  such  economical  and  superficial  ar- 
rangements, does  the  weary  pupil  keep  ever  revolv- 
ing, monotonously,  in  the  same  unbroken  round,  of 
ever  learning  many  things  and  never  coming  to  the 
real  knowledge  of  any  one  of  them.  And  what  an 
utter  want  of  any  system,  art  or  science  is  there, 
in  the  daily  work  appointed,  or  the  general  ends 
sought  for  the  pupil,  who  is  never  individualized, 
and  cannot  be,  in  the  treatment  that  he  receives  ; 
and  who  therefore  gets  only  that  share  of  the  gen- 
eral benefit  of  such  a  very  general  style  of  school- 
work,  that  may  fall  by  the  natural  or  accidental 
force  of  circumstances  to  him,  without  his  looking 
after  it  or  any  one  else  looking  after  it  for  him. 
Mental  discipline  should  be  the  aim  of  the  common 
schools  ;  and  all  their  machinery  should  be  so 
thoroughly  contrived  and  managed  in  its  working, 
that  such  a  result  should  actually  be  gained,  not 
only  generally  but  also  to  a  large  degree.  It  is  no 
answer  to  just  criticism  upon  the  insufficient  ar- 
rangements or  management  of  these  or  any  other 
schools,  to  say  that  a  faithful  student  can  make 
great  gain  to  himself,  by  a  careful  use  of  their  priv- 
ileges. Few  faithful  students  are  self- formed  in 
their  origin.  Discipline  in  its  very  etymology  means 
something  learned  from  others,  like  the  word  disci- 
ple, who  is  such  a  learner.  The  object  of  schools, 
as  of  churches,  is  not  to  profit  those  merely  who  are 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    299 

already  right,  at  least  by  approximation,  but  also 
to  awaken  and  educate  the  dull  and  lethargic,  who 
would  otherwise  pass  through  life  unknowing  and 
unknown. 

Neither  the  State  nor  the  Church  nor  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  community,  at  large,  are  at 
all  alive  to  the  claims  of  the  great  cause  of  educa- 
tion, whether  in  its  special  or  its  general  forms.  If 
the  affairs  of  business  or  of  government  had  as  lit- 
tle watchful  interest  bestowed  upon  them,  they 
would  be  in  a  state  of  general  anarchy.  There  is 
indeed  considerable  noise  made  about  our  educa- 
tional machinery  at  times,  and  in  some  places  there 
is  not  a  little  clatter  in  its  actual  operations.  But 
the  product,  in  all  high  degrees,  is  certainly  very 
small.  There  are  often  indeed  quite  wonderful  ex- 
hibitions made  of  talent  in  declamation  and  com- 
position, in  many  schools  and  colleges,  male  and 
female  :  proofs,  as  ambitious  teachers  and  friends 
would  fain  have  their  spectators  believe,  of  a  large 
amount  of  youthful  attainment,  if  not  also  of 
youthful  genius.  But  what  becomes  afterwards  of 
the  crop  of  superior  writers  and  speakers  and  schol- 
ars, whose  promise  seemed  so  great  ?  Was  the 
parade,  made  with  such  satisfaction,  all  a  mere  pit- 
iable farce  and  but  an  elaborate  and  not  even  well- 
concealed  system  of  self-glorification,  for  those  who 
got  it  up  ?  Or  what  was  it  ?  Who  can  tell  ? 


300         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

The  strife  is  everywhere,  undisguisedly,  for 
numbers  In  nearly  all  our  institutions  ;  and  to  this 
idea  every  thing  like  an  elevated  standard  of  re- 
quirements is  generally  sacrificed,  so  that  admission 
shall  be  easy ;  and  all  vigorous  closeness  of  drill,  as 
of  stern  requisition,  is  afterwards  relaxed,  so  that 
the  student  shall  have  no  argument,  from  intellec- 
tual uncomfortableness  in  his  position,  for  leaving 
it.  And  then,  to  make  a  good  external  impression 
all  the  while  upon  the  public  mind,  so  as  to  keep 
as  many  as  possible  pleased  and  interested,  the  plan 
is  to  prepare  a  grand  annual  demonstration,  which 
shall  have  the  merit  of  striking  the  senses  as  favor- 
ably as  possible.  But,  alas  for  such  contrivances  ! 
"  water  will  find  its  level ;  "  and  "  the  stream  will 
rise  no  higher  than  its  fountain  ;  "  and  the  outward 
results  of  our  educational  system  do  not  and  will 
not  mount  above  the  point,  to  which  they  are  ele- 
vated by  their  own  inward  working  merits.  Let  no 
one  think  that  satire  is  our  delight.  We  have  no 
skill  in  it  and  no  liking  for  it  ;  but  the  truth  we 
do  like,  whether  single-edged  or  double-edged  ;  and 
although  it  be  "  a  divider  asunder  of  the  soul  and 
the  spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  the  marrow/'  We 
write  what  we  write  complainingly,  only  with  sad- 
ness ;  and  have  no  such  theory  as  that  strong  writ- 
ing consists  in  sharp  and  bitter  words.  A  spirit 
of  denunciation  belongs  neither  to  a  truth-loving 


AND    THE    PROGRESS    OF    TH 

nor  to  a  man-loving  disposition  :  it 
rence  ;  and  God  grant  that  it  may  ever  be  !  But, 
while  even  "  the  truth  is  not  to  be  always  spoken," 
unless  it  is  directly  demanded,  or  its  voluntary  sup- 
pression would  be  a  practical  lie,  yet,  when  the 
good  of  society  requires  its  utterance,  let  it  come, 
however  unasked  or  even  unwelcome,  and  in  what- 
ever form  of  gentleness  or  wrath  that  is  most  ap- 
propriate to  the  case. 

Society  has  no  interest  in  obtaining  any  thing 
but  realities.  These  are  its  lifeblood  and  its  pow- 
er :  its  elements  of  growth  and  its  glory.  Keal 
education  is,  like  real  religion,  in  all  its  bearings, 
personal  and  social,  of  priceless  value.  Were  the 
prizes  of  life  distributed  into  many  portions,  and 
the  suitors  for  them  parcelled  into  as  many  divis- 
ions more,  the  one  class  containing  all  the  men  of 
true  high  education  would  be  found  to  possess  all 
the  prizes,  except  a  meagre  remainder  too  small  to 
be  worthy  of  much  interest  in  their  distribution. 
Society  has,  accordingly,  the  most  vital  interest  in 
multiplying  the  number  of  its  successful  reapers 
in  the  harvest  of  life.  Its  true  policy  is,  to  equal- 
ize, only  as  it  elevates,  its  members. 

The  reason  of  so  much  more  wide-spread  indus- 
try and  success  in  modern  times  is  to  be  found  in 
the  more  general  diffusion  of  the  influences  and 
benefits  of  the  Higher  Education.  A  large  and 


302         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

true  education  possessed  by  any  one  man,  besides 
the  blessings  directly  achieved  by  it  in  his  own 
sphere  of  activity,  also,  although,  indirectly,  yet 
powerfully  quickens  multitudes  of  others  to  enter- 
prise and  effort. 

Much  has  been  said  in  all  ages  about  the  unne- 
cessariness  of  high  learning  and  education  to  true 
personal  and  social  development  ;  but  the  illustra- 
tions chosen  for  the  exemplification  of  this  idea 
have  been  always  selected  from  those  men  of  rare 
native  genius,  who,  by  the  strong  upward  impulse 
of  their  natures,  mount,  with  special  helps  or  with- 
out them,  to  conspicuous  heights  of  attainment. 
Genius  will  prove  itself  genius,  even  without  exter- 
nal aids.  It  is  sky-born,  and  will  soar  :  it  is  its  na- 
ture. And  so  dulness  cannot  be  galvanized  into 
splendid  talent,  by  mere  energetic  determination  to 
stimulate  and  improve  it.  But  let  genius  and 
scholarly  toil  combine  their  energies  and  influences 
in  one  result  :  let  genius,  in  other  words,  instead 
of  losing  a  large  amount  of  its  native  momentum 
in  moving  against  a  sea  of  difficulties,  move  with  a 
strong  tide  of  advantages  in  its  favor  ;  and  what 
an  argument  for  giving  it  all  possible  facilities  does 
its  high  use  of  them  when  obtained  present.  But 
the  cause  of  education,  as  it  always  has  been,  so 
always  will  be,  abundantly  underrated  by  mean 
thinkers,  as  so  many  have  treated  in  all  ages  the 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    303 

cause  of  vital  religion  in  like  manner,  by  glorifying 
natural  goodness,  in  instances  of  large  original  de- 
velopment, at  the  supposed  expense  of  practical 
Christianity,  as  manifested  in  the  moral  fruitage  to 
"be  found  on  the  cold  unfriendly  soil  of  a  disposi- 
tion, marked  with  naturally  small  endowments,  or 
possessing  only  a  mass  of  perverted  hereditary  in- 
stincts. 

There  is  still  another  subject,  which,  for  its  in- 
jurious influence  upon  the  tone  of  our  educational 
and  Christian  principles  and  feelings,  demands  dis- 
tinct discussion  here  :  the  conferment  of  honorary 
degrees  by  our  colleges  and  universities.  What- 
ever good  intention  there  may  have  been  in  their 
first  establishment,  or  whatever  fancied  value  these 
literary  baubles  may  once  have  had,  they  have  come, 
by  great  over-bestowment  of  late,  and  by  their  be- 
ing so  often  given  for  feeble  and  false  reasons,  to  be 
ridiculous  and  dishonorable  incumbrances  to  our 
educational  system.  Such  was  the  history  of  crowns 
in  ancient  Greece.  In  the  earlier  and  better  pe- 
riods of  their  history,  the  Greeks  made  but  little 
use  of  them  ;  for  worth  made  the  man  and  want 
of  it  the  fellow.  But,  from  being  mere  honorary 
wreaths  of  olive-leaf,  as  they  were  at  the  first,  they 
came  to  be  afterwards,  in  more  degenerate  times, 
cfowns  of  solid  gold  ;  that  the  decrease  of  their 
outward  value  as  marks  of  distinction,  by  the  fre- 


304         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

quency  of  their  bestowal,  might  be  compensated  by 
a  corresponding  increase  in  the  inward  value  of 
their  substance.  And  among  the  Athenians,  pre- 
viously to  the  time  of  Alexander,  crowns  of  gold 
were  profusely  distributed  for  every  trifling  feat, 
military,  naval  and  civil.  So  inevitably  has  the 
tendency  of  all  titles  and  badges  of  honor,  as  of  the 
drama  hitherto  in  every  country,  and  indeed  of 
public  amusements  generally,  as  such,  been  down- 
ward, uniformly  and  rapidly  downward.  So  nobles, 
who,  by  the  original  signification  of  their  name, 
were,  at  the  first,  men  worthy  to  be  known,  have 
in  all  nations,  where  the  title  has  been  a  civil  in- 
stead of  a  moral  one,  degenerated  ere  long  into  the 
mere  representatives  of  an  ancestry  who  acquired 
personal  distinctions  for  themselves,  which  their 
ignoble  posterity  have  not  only  been  unable  to 
equal,  but  even  to  keep.  Honor  is  not  a  matter 
that  can  be  bought  and  sold  in  the  market  of  the 
world,  nor  can  it  be  done  up  and  labelled  and  passed 
around  wherever  it  is  wanted.  Honor,  of  a  true 
quality  and  enduring,  is  always  originated  in  the 
life  and  character  of  him  who  possesses  it  :  it  can- 
not be  taken  from  him,  except  by  his  own  weak- 
ness and  wickedness  ;  nor  can  it  be  increased  a 
particle,  by  the  formal  parade  of  any  idlers  or  flat- 
terers in  his  behalf,  who  are  quite  as  apt  to  think, 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.     305 

in  whatever  noise  that  they  make  over  him,  of  ren- 
dering themselves  conspicuous,  as  of  glorifying  him. 
Would  that,  as  the  progress  of  the  age  has 
quite  destroyed  the  power  of  factitious  forms,  in 
reference  to  clergymen  as  a  class,  and  made  the  so- 
cial position  of  each  one  of  them  depend,  like  that 
of  every  other  man,  on  his  individual  character  and 
attainments,  without  benefit  of  clergy  ;  and  as  of- 
ficial uniforms  are  obnoxious  to  our  American  feel- 
ings ;  so  our  colleges  and  universities  would  strike 
their  blow,  also,  like  the  rest  of  the  people,  their 
last,  full,  effectual  blow  at  this  remnant  of  a  dispo- 
sition among  us,  to  ape  the  traditionary  silliness  of 
earlier  ages  and  of  other  lands.  No  forward  move- 
ment could  be  more  Christian,  or  more  American, 
in  its  spirit  :  none  more  beneficent  in  its  results. 
Here  for  once  a  great  and  good  reform  might  be 
achieved  by  a  mere  negative  process.  Let  them 
rigidly  and  forever  abstain  from  giving  any  and  all 
honorary  degrees  in  the  future  ;  and  how  soon 
would  all  those  which  have  been  so  lavishly  given, 
and  accepted  with  such  inward  and  even  undis- 
guised satisfaction,  in  the  past,  wither  up  and  lose 
all  their  fragrance  and  their  life,  like  the  branches 
of  a  tree  whose  main  trunk  had  been  riven  with  the 
stroke  of  a  thunderbolt. 

Honorary  degrees  they  are  denominated,  except 
when  in  course  :  as  none  but  the  lower  ones  so 


306        THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

called  are  ;  but  they  are  honorary  in  their  use  only 
to  those  who  do  not  merit  them,  and,  in  a  country 
like  ours,  are  so  often  bestowed  on  such  recipients  as 
to  make  the  dividing  line  between  them,  as  matters 
of  real  honor  or  of  mere  compliment,  not  gloriously 
indeed,  but  quite  ingloriously,  uncertain.  When  mer- 
ited, the  college  confers  honor  on  itself,  in  recognizing 
such  merit,  rather  than  on  the  individual  so  no- 
ticed ;  and  when  not  merited  the  gift  may  be  called 
honorary,  but  it  actually  honors  neither  the  receiver 
nor  the  giver.  A  system  of  titular  distinctions  is 
sufficiently  pleasing  to  weak  and  ambitious  minds, 
to  be  sure  of  finding  many  secret  if  not  open  ad- 
mirers and  advocates.  But  it  should  ever  be  the 
sentiment  flying  on  the  flagstaff  of  all  our  institu- 
tions, as  a  Christian  people  ;  and  the  higher  the 
institution,  the  larger  and  brighter  should  be  the 
letters  in  which  it  is  written  :  that  "  mind  is  the 
standard  of  the  man/'  and  that  real,  honest,  earnest, 
manliness  and  godliness  are  the  only  signals  of  honor 
that  any  man  needs,  or  which  any  one,  however 
tricked  by  himself  or  by  others,  really  possesses. 
Our  plain  American  dress,  in  the  presence  of  for- 
eign ambassadors  at  home,  or  of  foreign  courts 
abroad,  bespangled  and  bejewelled  as  they  are,  we 
are  quite  willing  to  claim  as  indicative  of  our  na- 
tional taste  ;  and  let  it  be  the  symbol  of  that  true 
simplicity  of  character,  in  all  the  relations  of  life, 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    307 

of  a  people  whose  habits  and  customs  and  institu- 
tions are,  according  to  the  just  conceptions  of  our 
wisest  and  noblest  thinkers,  all  formed  anew,  under 
the  light  and  heat  of  gospel  truth,  out  of  all  the 
elements  of  human  experience  and  of  human  at- 
tainment, hitherto,  as  their  staple.  Would  it  not 
be  worthy  of  us  as  a  people,  to  ascend  at  once,  in 
our  secret  and  formal  estimates  of  men  and  things, 
to  the  level  to  which  Christianity  points  us,  where 
human  feelings  and  gauges  run  parallel,  in  their 
course,  with  the  divine.  It  is  the  glory  of  our 
laws,  and  so  far  only  have  they  any  glory,  that  they 
are  based  upon  the  Law  of  God.  We  are  a  Chris- 
tian people,  and  are  in  no  danger  of  having  our 
consciousness  of  so  high  a  fact  too  intensified. 
Public  sentiment  needs  earnest  pressure  in  this  di- 
rection. All  the  slow  progress  of  humanity,  in  all 
ages  and  countries  hitherto,  alike  in  the  unwritten 
laws  of  equity,  honor,  kindness  and  charity,  pre- 
vailing in  society,  and  in  the  formal  statutes  or- 
dained in  reference  to  the  many  complications  of 
human  rights  and  human  actions,  has  been  but  a 
laborious  tardy  passage  ;  and  so  tardy  because  made 
with  so  little  direct  request  for  guidance  from  above  ; 
from  one  step  to  another,  towards  a  full  realized 
unity  in  the  end  with  the  law  and  the  will  of  God. 
On  this  sublime  elevation  of  entire  intellectual  and 
moral  sympathy  with  Him  will  every  community  at 


308         THE     HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

last  rest,  as  on  a  pinnacle  of  light,  in  bright,  per- 
manent, happy  repose.  To  that  glorious  mount  of 
exaltation,  therefore,  let  us  as  a  people  rejoice  to 
lead  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  in  all  matters 
of  business,  enterprise,  progress,  legislation,  juris- 
prudence, religion,  literature  and  education. 

Could  a  book  entitled  The  Secret  History  of 
Honorary  Degrees,  be  prepared,  according  to  the 
actual  facts  of  the  case,  it  would  be  full  of  comi- 
cal, not  to  say  mortifying,  revelations.  Many,  sup- 
posed to  be  quite  independent  in  their  sense  of 
their  position,  would  be  found  to  be  full  of  prurient 
desire  for  the  help  of  such  a  college-bolster.  What 
appears  to  the  uninformed  to  be  the  product  of 
spontaneous  appreciation,  would  be  seen  to  be  too 
often  the  result  of  distant  contrivance.  Many  are 
the  hands  that  pull  the  wires  ;  and  sinuous  enough 
are  the  paths  through  which  the  influence  comes  at 
times  :  in  order  to  secure  for  a  friend  that,  which, 
though  made  of  such  account,  is  after  all  as  near 
the  shadow  of  nothing  as  any  thing  can  be.  Boards 
of  College-trustees  have  a  corporate  existence,  and 
must  show  the  public  that  they  are  alive  :  they 
must  do  something  that  others  will  see  ;  and  what 
can  it  be  but  spend  money  and  give  degrees.  It 
makes  no  matter,  of  course,  that  they  have  been 
brought  into  their  place  in  the  Board,  on  the  ground 
of  their  wealth  and  its  prospective  promise  of  fu- 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    309 

ture  profit  perchance  to  the  institution,  or  of  their 
general  good  position  in  society,  although  they 
have  never  been  educated  themselves  ;  and  so  are 
utterly  destitute  of  all  scholastic  ideas  and  all  the 
elements  of  just  criticism  and  discrimination  con- 
cerning the  merits  of  their  superiors.  They  are 
yet  good  tools  for  a  few  designing  minds,  that  know 
well  how  to  use  them.  And  besides,  as  our  colleges 
are  each  of  them,  openly  or  by  implication,  a  de- 
nominational pet,  or,  if  not,  somehow  or  other,  do 
not  commonly  succeed,  every  denomination  is  anx- 
ious to  hold  its  banner  as  high  as  any  other,  and  to 
rank  as  many  conspicuous  men  among  its  represen- 
tatives, as  possible.  And  what  way  is  there  of 
manufacturing  great  men  to  order,  like  doctoring 
them  with  a  title  ?  And  then  too  how  much  good 
can  a  kind  clergyman  himself  do  sometimes,  as  he 
is  very  conscientious  in  believing  :  remembering 
well  at  the  same  time  how  much  benefit  a  kindred 
service  once  realized  to  him  :  in  obtaining  for  a  fel- 
low-clergyman, who  has  begun  from  his  idleness  or 
dulness  to  hold  his  position  by  a  loose  tenure,  a 
doctorate  which  shall  make  his  people  think  that 
they  were  mistaken  in  their  estimate  of  him,  and 
that  the  real  dulness  was  in  themselves  after  all, 
instead  of  being  in  their  minister.  And  if  there 
be  no  other  reason  for  giving  doctorates,  where  they 
would  not  otherwise  be  bestowed,  what  an  all-con- 


310          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

straining  argument  for  action  may  it  sometimes  be, 
to  an  institution  that  wishes  to  drop  anchors  to 
windward  for  funds  or  students,  over  a  given  area 
which  it  would  fain  secure  as  its  own,  to  bind  to  it- 
self by  such  empty  but  influential  flatteries  ;  and 
which  from  whatever  motive  given  will  always  be 
rightly  interpreted  by  the  vanity  of  their  recipients  : 
the  occupants  of  the  leading  pulpits  at  the  more 
important  points  of  action.  Such  are  some  of  the 
sources,  among  others  of  no  higher  character,  from 
which  these  so-called  honors  are  annually  scattered, 
ad  nauseam,  over  the  land.  And,  so  far  has  the  in- 
fluence of  this  weak  unintellectual  and  undignified, 
not  to  say  immoral,  action  of  many  of  our  colleges 
pervaded  the  community,  that  barbers  and  fiddlers, 
hair-dyers  and  pill-makers  everywhere  announce 
themselves,  and  with  as  much  comfortable  self-con- 
sciousness as  any  one  else,  as  Professors  of  their 
several  trades.  They  see  many,  called  Doctors  of 
Laws  and  of  Divinity,  that  are  utterly  incapable  of 
teaching  either  the  law  or  the  gospel,  and  imagine 
that,  if  an  empty  title  helps  others  so  much,  one 
that  they  deserve  in  their  calling,  as  they  know, 
will  certainly  help  them.  And  if  colleges  and  cler- 
gymen value  mere  names  so  much,  surely  there 
must  be  something,  they  think,  in  a  name.  But  ifc 
should  be  one  of  our  fixed  American  fashions,  not 
to  generate,  harbor  or  endure  any  shams.  We  are 


AND  THE  PBOGKESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    311 

believed,  and  not  without  reason,  across  the  waters, 
to  abound  in  them.  Humbug,  they  say,  is  an 
American  word  ;  and  turning  its  edge  upon  us  they 
use  it  to  describe,  in  one  brief  term,  all  our  charac- 
ter and  all  our  institutions.  Nowhere  they  say  too 
are  titles  coveted  so  much,  as  among  that  famous 
democratic  people  ;  nowhere  do  they  cleave  so  te- 
naciously to  those  who  have  once  received  them  ; 
and  nowhere  are  they  conferred,  on  such  frivolous 
and  unintelligible  grounds.  With  such  ancestral 
and  historical  antecedents  as  we  have,  we  should, 
as  a  matter  of  self-respect  as  a  people,  abstain  care- 
fully from  all  pretentious,  as  well  as  all  unmeaning, 
ceremonies,  forms  and  decorations.  Our  posterity 
will  thank  us  for  keeping  the  spirit  of  our  fathers, 
and  much  more  for  practically  exemplifying,  in  all 
our  habits  and  customs,  the  spirit  of  the  Bible. 
Home,  like  Greece,  so  long  as  she  was  simple  in  her 
tastes  and  honored  real  merit  and  therefore  abound- 
ed in  true  workers,  was  inwardly  great  ;  and  so 
shall  we  be,  who  are,  for  the  all-conquering  ten- 
dency, or  rather  destiny,  of  our  ideas  and  institu- 
tions, the  Kome  of  the  modern  world,  if  Ve  main- 
tain those  ingenuous,  honest,  earnest,  habits  as  a 
people,  which  are  the  elements  of  all  true  success, 
both  for  individuals  and  for  nations.  And  this  all 
the  more  :  since  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  be  with  us, 
whom  Home  knew  not  ;  and  who  Himself  bids  us 


312          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

seek  for  that  honor,  which  comes  from  Grod  only. 
This,  if  obtained,  will  make  one  rich  indeed  ;  while 
without  it  whatever  ornaments  any  one  may  wear 
they  are  but  the  ornaments  of  a  beggar  :  the  honor 
which  He  bestows  on  him,  who  gives  all  diligence 
in  getting  and  doing,  at  all  times,  every  kind  of 
good. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  littleness  of  hanker- 
ing after  degrees  has  come  to  be  one  of  the  signs 
of  the  times  among  us  ;  as  also,  in  the  light  of 
what  has  been  said,  of  our  degeneracy  so  far  as  a 
people.  As  college  commencements  annually  re- 
cur, what  numerous  eyes  are  turned  longingly 
towards  them,  for  the  bestowment  of  these  tawdry 
honors.  Letters,  few  of  them  self-moved  from  the 
source  whence  they  appear  to  come,  and  hints  and 
requests,  buzz  about  the  faculty  and  trustees  of 
colleges,  at  such  a  time,  as  bees  about  sweet  flow- 
ers in  summer  ;  and  a  thinking  observer  comes  to 
fear,  that  the  Republic  of  letters  is  almost  wholly 
demoralized,  in  reference  to  its  points  of  honor :  for 
such  petty  reasons  do  those,  who  keep  the  mystic 
.keys  to  these  desired  treasures,  arise,  at  such  a 
time,  in  all  haste  for  the  deliverance  of  hopes  long 
deferred. 

Were  this  ridiculous  system  of  manufacturing 
honors  to  order  now  sought  to  be  introduced  for  the 
first  time,  could  it  possible  be  started,  so  as  to  go  ? 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    313 

Would  it  encounter  less  derision,  than  the  new- 
fangled idea  of  conferring  degrees  on  literary  wo- 
men receives  in  its  initiation  ?  And  is  it  in  itself 
any  more  beautiful  or  respectable,  when  perpetuated 
than  when  initiated  ?  Time  may  accustom  men 
to  abuses,  and  make  them  callous  to  their  evils  ; 
but  it  only  aggravates  instead  of  diminishing  the 
abuses  themselves.  How  strange  too  the  inconsis- 
tencies of  even  intelligent  and  good  men  !  He 
who  would  smile  at  an  European  official,  for  exhib- 
iting habitually  upon  his  person,  with  whatever 
seeming  unconsciousness,  the  decorations  of  his  of- 
fice ;  or,  at  a  savage,  for  walking  about  in  all  grav- 
ity with  a  very  dignified  sense  of  the  fact,  that  he 
had  a  large  brass  ring  hanging  from  his  nose  ;  or, 
at  a  child,  for  peering  constantly  into  a  mirror  to 
enjoy  the  sight  of  some  ribbons  that  were  flaunting 
about  its  head  :  will  yet  value  for  himself,  quite  as 
much,  the  tinkling  of  a  few  alphabetic  symbols 
around  about  his  name,  when  fastened  upon  it  by 
way  of  honor  :  a  fact  which  they  who  added  them 
foresaw,  and  bestowed  them  therefore  for  the  sake 
of  pleasing  him.  If  this  does  not  exemplify  the 
idea  of  being  "  pleased  with  a  rattle  and  tickled 
with  a  straw,"  what  illustration  could  be  furnished 
of  it  ?  How  different  from  such  an  estimation  of 
these  literary  trinkets,  which,  like  the  pewter 
watches  of  children,  have  nothing,  but  their  looks 
14 


314         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

to  recommend  them,  was  that  of  the  great  Hurn- 
boldt,  recently  deceased,  after  whose  death  the  many 
badges  of  honor  which  he  had  received,  through  a 
long  life,  were  found,  to  the  surprise  of  every  one, 
lying  around  in  neglected  nooks  and  corners,  among 
rags  and  old  papers  ;  while  the  leaves  of  trees  and 
specimens  of  minerals  and  pressed  flowers  were  laid 
by  in  choice  places,  and  kept  with  jealous  care. 
Thanks  to  this  great  man  for  this  undesigned,  but 
true  and  manly,  utterance  concerning  the  utter  in- 
significance of  such  "  semilunar  fardels." 

It  is  the  church  that  sustains  this  system  of 
glittering  follies.  Kich  churches,  in  large  places 
and  small  alike,  desire  to  exhibit  as  many  signals  as 
possible  of  metropolitan  grandeur  ;  and  therefore 
relish  architectural  magnificence,  and  a  large  broth- 
erhood, for  the  good  outward  show  that  it  makes, 
and  a  preacher  that  carries  about  with  him  as  many 
public  recognitions  as  may  be  of  his  superiority  to 
others  in  his  neighborhood.  And  so  long  as  such 
churches  have  leaders  that  covet  these  ribbons,  and 
it  is  manifest  that  both  pastor  and  people  can  be 
gained  at  one  complimentary  throw  of  good  feeling 
toward  them,  in  such  a  way,  the  temptation  will 
be  well-nigh  irresistible  to  young  and  weak  colleges, 
seeking  for  growth  in  popularity,  to  cater  freely  to 
their  expectations.  In  the  accounts  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal meetings  how  careful  are  the  clerks  of  record  to 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    315 

file  off  the  Doctors  of  Divinity  by  themselves  as  if 
of  higher  rank  than  the  rest.  So  universal  is  this 
custom,  and  so  long  has  it  been  maintained,  that 
the  weaker  victims  of  the  system  have  really  come 
to  feel,  from  the  special  parade  that  is  made  of 
their  names  by  their  brethren,  that  they  are  in  fact 
entitled  to  it  on  their  own  account.  In  the  maga- 
zines, also,  published  by  our  Keligious  Societies, 
Foreign  Missionary,  Home  Missionary  and  all,  the 
same  special  care  to  place  all  such  titled  officers 
and  members  in  a  separate  seat  of  honor,  where 
their  empty  distinctions  shall  be  sure  to  be  noticed, 
is  clearly  observable.  And  all  this  in  the  church 
of  God  !  whose  corner-stone  is  Christ,  the  meek 
and  lowly  crucified  one  ;  and  the  voice  of  whose 
word  to  each  one  of  His  followers  is,  "  except  ye 
have  the  spirit  of  Christ  ye  are  none  of  His." 
That  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  the  cross  :  the  spirit  of 
service  unto  others,  through  any  degrees  of  joyful 
self-sacrifice  that  their  greatest  good  may  demand. 
The  answer  to  that  question  of  .strife  which  arose 
in  the  church  in  his  day  :  "  which  of  them  should 
be  the  greatest  ; "  and  that  so  often  arises  in  it 
now  :  is  the  same  that  it  was  then  :  "  he  who 
would  be  the  greatest  of  all  must  be  the  ser- 
vant of  all."  Are  not  those  therefore,  who  give  in 
the  household  of  Jesus  Christ  a  special  place  of  no- 
tice to  brethren,  whose  distinctions  are  as  cheaply 


316          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

obtained,  as  were  those  gold  rings,  which,  some  re- 
garded in  James'  day  and  said  to  their  wearers, 
"  sit  ye  here  in  a  good  place  :  "  just  as  truly  "  judges 
of  evil  thoughts  "  as  were  they  ?  and  all  the  more 
so,  since,  being  warned  by  their  wicked  example, 
they  have  yet  knowingly  fallen  into  the  same  snare  ? 
There  are  two  specific  commands  of  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church,  besides  many  general  ones, 
that,  according  to  all  natural  principles  of  interpre- 
tation, are  directly  relevant  to  this  subject.  "  Call 
no  man  your  Father  upon  the  earth  ;  "  and  ' '  Be 
not  ye  called  Kabbi."  Taken  in  connection  with 
another  passage  :  "  My  brethren,  be  not  many  "  of 
you  "  masters  "  or  teachers,  "  knowing  that  there- 
by "  (that  is,  if  unfaithful)  "  ye  shall  receive  the 
greater  condemnation  :  "  their  sense  is  plain.  The 
Head  of  the  Church  is  very  jealous  of  having  any 
of  its  members  act  as  Heads  in  it  unto  any  of  His 
children  whom  He  would  have  all  look  directly  to 
Him  and  not  to  Apollos,  Paul,  Calvin  or  Edwards, 
who  were  "  but  ministers"  or  servants  u  by  whom 
they  believed."  It  is  not  pleasing  to  Christ  that 
any  who  preach  in  His  name  should  use  any  power 
or  hold  any  position  of  factitious  origin  or  influence 
over  others.  Power  belongeth  unto  Him  ;  and  the 
weapons  of  their  warfare  are  not  carnal  but  spirit- 
ual :  simply  truth  and  love  used  faithfully  and  with 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    317 

full  trust  in  Him.     Any  influence  acquired  in  the 
church  in  any  other  way  is  false  and  pernicious. 

How  then  can  this  great  organized  system,  of 
annually  manufactured  follies,  be  overthrown,  as  it 
ought  to  be,  for  the  good  of  man  and  the  glory  of 
God  ?  There  are  not  wanting  favorable  signs  01 
progress  in  this  direction.  A  few  men,  by  looking 
steadfastly  up  into  the  sky  in  silence,  can  lead  a 
large  crowd  to  gather  around  them  and  look  with 
them.  A  few  men,  by  getting  up  an  alarm  in  a 
public  assembly,  can  soon  make  all  the  rest  as 
alarmed  as  themselves.  The  sympathies  of  men 
are  as  quick  as  they  are  universal.  And  so,  every 
man  who  keeps  quiet  and  cheerful  in  a  general 
alarm,  leads  others  to  imitate  him,  as  every  man 
that  passes  by  a  gaping  crowd,  intent  upon  his  bu- 
siness, helps  to  disperse  them.  Many  are  now  al- 
ready full  of  the  feeling  concerning  honorary  de- 
grees that  is  expressed  in  these  pages,  and  regard 
their  continuance  not  only  as  farcical,  but  as  greatly 
injurious  to  the  progress  of  true  scholarship  and  of 
true  religion.  Instead  also  of  the  long  array  of  ti- 
tles with  which  authors,  a  little  while  ago,  were 
careful  to  drape  their  names  on  title-pages,  as  if 
wishing  to  walk  in  robes  of  state  before  their  read- 
ers at  their  very  introduction  to  them,  the  growing 
fashion  is  coming  to  be,  as  we  are  glad  to  discover, 
to  use  the  bare  name  by  itself,  which  is  certainly 


318         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

more  beautiful  alone  than  'with  any  appendages. 
Let  Authors  one  and  all  follow  this  new  and  Amer- 
ican fashion  :  it  deserves  a  full  establishment.  Let 
secretaries  also  drop  the  custom  of  putting  two  D's 
after  any  one's  name,  which  are  no  better  than  two 
Q's  or  Z's  ;  and  which  if  any  man  values,  let  him 
put  them  on  his  own  name  for  himself.  Whoever 
thinks,  except  in  College  Catalogues,  of  keeping 
track  of  the  LL.  D's  that  different  lawyers  have 
received,  in  writing  or  speaking  their  names.  If 
colleges  will  persist  in  giving  these  titles,  let  them 
be  dropped  from  public  observation  in  the  case  of 
clergymen,  just  as  in  Germany  scholars  take  no 
note  of  them  in  publishing  each  other's  names. 
And  let  the  editors  of  papers  and  periodicals  contrib- 
ute their  influence  to  make  degrees  preserve  their 
own  vitality,  without  any  help  whatever  from  them. 
In  correspondence  also  much  may  be  done,  to  let 
them  drop  to  the  ground  and  be  forgotten  as  they 
certainly  will  be,  without  artificial  help  to  sustain 
them. 

Since  the  church  makes  such  account  of  eccle- 
siastical titles,  a  similar  fashion  for  folly  has  come 
into  vogue,  of  late,  in  reference  to  civil  offices  :  of 
calling  those  who  have  once  been  their  incumbents, 
ever  afterwards,  Honorable.  And  many  are  the 
men  over  all  the  land,  who,  having,  by  political  ac- 
cident ani  even  it  may  be  in  ways  less  honorable, 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    319 

obtained  public  promotion,  are  now  moving  about 
in  the  community,  with  a  very  satisfying  persuasion 
of  their  honorableness,  since  everybody  writes  and 
calls  them  such,  that  are  yet  among  the  smallest 
or  most  unworthy  specimens  of  the  race. 

If  any  one  thinks  that  too  much  prominence, 
relatively,  is  given  to  this  topic  of  our  general  sub- 
ject, in  this  place,  his  convictions  will  change  to 
ours,  we  believe,  on  farther  thought.  Its  connec- 
tions with  the  Higher  Christian  Education  of  our 
country  are  vital.  So  long  as  social  distinctions 
can  be  gotten  by  machinery,  or  under  sinister  influ- 
ences of  any  kind,  the  public  tone  of  feeling  con- 
cerning the  necessary  relation  appointed  of  God  be- 
tween labor  and  its  rewards,  and  between  personal 
merit  and  public  consideration  and  usefulness  is  so 
far  assailed  and  lowered  ;  and  the  traditions  of 
men  are  practically  substituted  for  the  command- 
ments of  God.  All  the  elevation  of  estimate  and 
aim  which  the  community  at  large  are  to  acquire 
anew  from  one  age  to  another,  they  are  to  gain  from 
the  views  and  feelings  of  our  educated  and  Chris- 
tian thinkers  ;  and  it  is  surely  high  time  that  they 
should  set  the  example  in  every  thing,  of  acting 
according  to  things  as  they  are.  The  tide  of  pub- 
lic sentiment  on  all  great  things,  even  in  Christian 
lands,  always  runs  much  below  high-water-mark  ; 
and  the  currents  of  manly  enterprise  and  energy 


320  THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

are  always  slower  and  weaker  in  most  men's  hearts, 
than  they  ought  to  be.  What  an  evil  therefore 
and  what  a  sin  is  it,  for  the  leaders  of  society  to 
knowingly  impair,  and  pervert  the  elements  of 
right  and  strong  thought  and  of  true  principles  in 
the  community  !  We  have  ventured  indeed  over 
more  space  in  this  part  of  our  subject  than  we 
should  have  done,  did  we  know  of  any  other  simi- 
lar discussion  of  this  subject  elsewhere. 

II.  The  connection  of  the  Higher  Education, 
specifically,  with  all  the  lower  forms  of  general  ed- 
ucation. 

Where  in  all  nature  is  what  is  high  developed, 
only  or  chiefly  by  what  is  underneath  it  ?  All 
growths  are  indeed  by  necessity  from  beneath  up- 
wards. But  where  resides,  where  acts,  the  stimu- 
lating power  ?  The  busy  springs  and  wheels  of 
vegetable  life  are  set  in  motion  daily  by  the  sun, 
with  ever  increasing  force,  as  he  mounts  continually 
on  his  ascending  pathway  to  high  noon.  Under  the 
magic  touch  of  his  beams,  the  vapors  rise,  that,  as 
they  go  up,  bathe  the  leaves  with  those  invisible 
drops  of  mist  that  suffice  to  meet  their  minute  in- 
visible wants,  only  to  descend  in  copious  fulness 
for  a  greater  blessing  on  them,  in  the  hour  of  their 
greater  need.  From  the  same  upper  sphere  comes 
down  the  heat  which,  rising  towards  its  source 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    321 

again,  gives  in  its  reflex  benefit  that  warmth,  by 
which  with  moisture  all  things  grow.  In  the  la- 
boratory of  leaves  which  to  most  eyes  merely  crown 
the  otherwise  unsightly  shapes  of  trees,  with  beauty 
of  form  for  the  eye,  or  with  fulness  of  shelter  from 
the  burning  sun,  goes  on  the  work  of  deoxidation 
and  assimilation,  by  which  they  keep  ever  rising 
and  spreading,  with  their  burden  of  flowers,  or 
fruit,  or  shade,  towards  the  skies.  So  in  the  head, 
regnant  over  all  the  members  of  the  body,  from  the 
height  of  whose  visual  orbs  flashes  forth  the  light 
of  thought  and  of  purposed  will,  in  that  high  se- 
cret place  of  power  resides  the  full  electric  energy 
of  the  man.  Down  from  above,  through  all  the 
currents  of  life,  pass  the  quickening  impulses  of 
the  ever- wakeful  mind.  So,  in  the  vital  economy 
of  God's  plans  and  powers,  He  "  sits  above  in  the 
circle  of  the  Heavens,"  not  simply  "  to  behold  the 
children  of  men/'  and  "  see  if  there  are  any  that 
seek  after  God,"  but  also,  much  more,  to  commu- 
nicate, with  love  and  skill  and  all-pervasive  watch- 
fulness, the  vital  contact  of  His  providence  and 
grace  to  every  creature,  as  he  needs. 

Let  not  this  true  philosophy  of  all  acquired  ele- 
vations and  growths  be  unnoticed  or  forgotten.  The 
quickening,  attractive,  elevating,  force  must  always 
be"  found  or  placed  above.  And  so,  the  higher 

classes  raise  the  lower  to  new  points  of  progress  and 
14* 


322          THE    HIGHER   CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

enjoyment,  by  the  force  of  their  own  example  and 
the  real  superiority  of  their  own  attainments  ;  rather 
than  by  any  formal  theories  or  mechanical  contri- 
vances that  they  may  apply  to  them.  Men  imi- 
tate, without  consciousness  of  the  fact,  or  at  least 
reflection  upon  it,  as  if  by  a  law  of  instinct,  their 
superiors.  Classes,  communities  and  nations  do  it ; 
and  so  do  educational  and  religious  institutions. 

Elevation,  real  or  supposed,  makes  one  at  once,  it 
is  true,  a  mark  for  envious  eyes  to  many  in  the  same 
neighborhood,  or  elsewhere  in  the  same  employment, 
who  stand  upon  a  lower  level  of  observation  or  of 
privileges.  The  world  would  not  be  depraved,  if 
such  facts  did  not  appear  in  it.  Human  nature 
nowhere  likes  to  be,  or.to  be  put,  in  the  background. 
Its  opposition  to  such  a  dilemma  is  hereditary  and 
perpetual ;  and,  in  the  manifestation  of  this  fact, 
extremes  here  as  in  other  things  often  meet,  in  ways 
strangely  humorous,  connected  with  those  at  the 
same  time  which  are  as  strangely  solemn,  wicked  or 
objectionable.  But  other  tendencies  and  more  influ- 
ential appear  also,  in  minds  of  any  natural  nobility  of 
constitution  :  a  disposition  to  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  those  who  are  mounting  upwards  and  onwards  to 
new  heights  of  achievement.  And  however  our  com- 
mon nature  may  be  overlaid  with  accumulations  of 
folly  and  of  guilt,  the  instinct  to  imitate  and  equal 
those  possessing  more  privileges  and  a  better  posi- 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    323 

tion  than  ourselves,  is  ever-present  and  ever-active, 
as  one  of  the  strongest  impulses  of  our  being,  in 
each  one  of  us.  A  good  example  is  one  of  the 
greatest  earthly  electrifiers  known  to  the  human 
heart ;  and  the  great  and  good  reign,  by  their  very 
character,  with  kingly  power  over  those  who  gaze 
at  them  and  are  spell-bound,  as  they  gaze. 

Where  universities  and  colleges  are  poor,  there 
poor  academies  will  appear ;  and  where  these 
abound,  common  schools  will  be  also  poor.  They 
will  all  dwell  together  in  a  common  poverty,  or  rise 
together  into  a  common  excellence.  The  true  mode 
of  elevating  them  is  not,  to  stand  beneath,  and,  by 
the  lever  of  authorship  or  of  public  lecturing  or  of 
formal  state-action,  undertake  to  raise  up,  by  de- 
grees, the  lower  stratum  of  these  educational  appli- 
ances, with  all  the  superincumbent  mass  above  it ; 
but,  commencing  with  the  highest  Form  of  educa- 
tion, to  raise  it  higher  still,  making  its  advantages 
as  widely  accessible  in  a  right  way  as  possible. 
The  Form  ranged  next  below  will  then  itself  have 
opportunity  to  expand  and,  by  the  powerful  attrac- 
tion of  influences  from  above,  and  the  pleasurable 
motive  for  undertaking  to  rise,  since  there  is  room 
for  it,  by  its  own  efforts  into  a  new  atmosphere  of 
faculties  and  privileges,  will  move  upwards,  as  if  by 
the  force  of  inward  instincts,  and  these  so  full  per- 
chance of  conscious  energy,  as  to  make  it  seem  dif- 


324         THE    HIGHEE    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

ficult  to  keep  from  rising.  So,  in  society,  when  its 
leaders  fall,  the  stimulus  to  arise  and  occupy  the 
places  above  them  operates  at  once  on  minds  that 
before  were  subordinate,  alike  in  their  position  and 
in  their  feelings  ;  so  that  they  mount  from  their 
new  impulses  into  their  new  spheres  and  move  in 
them,  as  easily  as  if  they  had  always  occupied  them 
before. 

One  of  the  great  practical  rules  of  social  phi- 
losophy is,  that  "  to  'him  who  hath  shall  more  be 
given."  And  as  men  delight  most,  in  giving  bene- 
factions and  endowments  to  institutions  that  have 
already  strong  foundations,  and  are  sure  to  live,  in- 
stead of  to  those  whose  feebleness,  while  it  makes 
the  strongest  appeals  to  their  beneficence,  casts  at 
the  same  time  a  cloud  of  doubt  over  their  future  ; 
so,  the  community  at  large  are  best  pleased,  when 
those  institutions  are  still  more  enlarged  and  ag- 
grandized, in  whatever  way,  that  possess  already 
the  greatest  functions  for  occupying  well  the  great- 
est sphere  of  activity.  If  in  the  past  they  have 
squandered  their  resources  and  abused  the  privi- 
leges of  their  position,  the  desire  to  see  them  glori- 
fied with  greater  resources  will  be  indeed  exceed- 
ingly, and  perhaps  fatally,  diminished  ;  but  still 
the  fact  remains,  that,  so  long  as  power  of  any  kind 
is  rightly  used,  or  supposed  to  be,  the  minds  of  men 
are  pleased  with  its  accumulation. 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    325 

There  are  doubtless  many  ignorant  persons  in 
every  enlightened  community,  who  think  that  the 
rich  are  the  natural  enemies  of  the  poor  :  forgetting 
that,  but  for  the  enterprises,  expenditures  and  cap- 
ital, employed  or  loaned,  of  the  rich,  the  poor  would 
be  poor  without  mitigation  and  beyond  redemption, 
having  no  change  or  hope  of  change  at  any  time  in 
their  circumstances.  Such  minds  will  of  course 
look  askance  at  the  idea  of  locking  up  either  money 
or  men  in  institutions  entirely  separate,  as  they  seem 
to  them  to  be,  from  the  business  and  bosom  of  so- 
ciety around  them.  But  schools  and  colleges  are 
the  forts  and  castles  of  the  land  ;  and  the  higher 
their  grade  and  the  style  of  their  working  influences, 
as  of  their  workmanship,  the  greater  is  their  ser- 
vice to  the  Church  and  to  the  State.  Let  therefore 
the  highest  of  them  be  made  higher  still,  and  let 
the  State  itself  show  increased  zeal  for  their  pros- 
perity, like  that  which  it  is  so  fond  of  showing  at 
least  in  name  for  common  schools. 

III.  The  necessity  and  beauty  of  the  Higher 
Education  being,  in  all  its  influence  upon  the  mass- 
es, thoroughly  and  inspiringly  Christian. 

Society  has  a  fundamental  interest  in  the  great- 
est possible  spread  of  Christianity,  and  especially 
in  its  highest  forms.  Objective  Christianity  is  one 
thing,  and  Subjective  Christianity  quite  another. 


326  THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

The  one,  like  geometry  or  any  other  absolute  sci- 
ence, is  abstract  and  ideal  and  as  such  perfect  and 
unchangeable.  The  other  is  ever-varying  in  every 
age  and  in  every  individual  that  possesses  it,  and  is 
Christianity,  not  as  it  is  in  itself,  but  as  it  appears 
when  realized  and  vitalized  in  those  human  hearts 
into  which  it  has  been  introduced,  as  the  great  per- 
manent principle  of  life.  Keal  subjective  Chris- 
tianity is  therefore  in  an  ignorant  mind  of  far  lower 
qualities,  for  joy  to  its  possessor  and  for  beauty  to  a 
beholder,  than  in  a  mind  full  of  intelligent  views, 
and  of  perpetually  high  strong  thought  ;  and  such 
a  mind  has  also  a  far  different  amount  of  momen- 
tum in  it,  in  respect  to  all  the  elements  of  personal 
activity  and  of  social  influence.  In  no  field  there- 
fore does  intellectual  cultivation,  on  the  one  hand, 
manifest  its  value  more  than  in  that  of  personal 
religion  ;  and  so  also,  on  the  other,  nowhere  does 
practical  Christianity  show  such  a  height  and 
breadth  of  development,  in  power  of  thought  and 
conception  and  in  beauty  of  faith  and  grace,  as  in 
minds  of  great  native  and  acquired  enlargement, 
that  have  been  thoroughly  sanctified  from  above. 

Society  has  therefore  the  greatest  possible  in- 
terest in  the  universal  prevalence  of  Christian- 
ity. On  two  points,  particularly,  is  this  inter- 
est most  concentrated  :  the  true,  living,  earnest, 
Christianity  of  those  who  are  its  actual  leaders,  and 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    327 

that  likewise  of  its  educators,  who  are  ever  busy  in 
preparing  the  succession  of  its  leaders,  from  one 
generation  to  another. 

§  1.  Ttfe  leaders  of  society  in  whatever  age  are  its 
thinkers,  especially  those  whose  thoughts  are  trans- 
fused with  energy  into  all  their  actions.  The  higher 
the  style  of  development  in  the  community  at 
large,  the  higher  will  be  the  quality  of  thought  re- 
quired in  its  leaders  ;  and  the  more  depth  and  uni- 
formity of  power  in  its  demonstration.  Society  has 
therefore  as  great  an  interest  in  the  right  accoutre- 
ment of  its  thinkers  for  their  work  and  their  right 
action  in  it,  as  in  the  nature  and  degree  of  the  great 
results  which  are  to  flow  from  their  aims  and  ef- 
forts. As  mankind  will  have  and  must  have  lead- 
ers, the  only  question  is,  what  kind  they  will  de- 
mand and  what  kind  they  will  accept.  Those  only 
should  society  welcome  to  the  van  of  its  movements, 
who,  by  their  attainments,  energy  and  aims,  intel- 
lectually and  morally,  are  qualified  and  disposed  to 
do  the  true  work  of  leaders.  All  who  are  not  lead- 
ers for  God  and  to  God  are  sure  of  discomfiture, 
sooner  or  later,  in  their  plans,  because  He  is  against 
them,  and  they  only  lead  their  followers  away  at 
every  step  from  true  honor  and  prosperity.  The 
wanderings  of  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness  on 
their  way  to  Canaan,  for  forty  years,  forwards  and 
backwards,  up  and  down,  now  near  and  now  away 


328         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

from  the  true  path  out  of  Egypt  to  the  Promised 
Land  :  a  journey,  which  to  modern  travel  consists 
of  but  a  few  brief  days  ;  is  but  a  type  of  the  er- 
rant 'directions  in  which  G-od  will  lead  about  all 
those  in  their  plans,  who  undertake  to  dispense  with 
His  guidance  and  blessing.  Is  not  the  history  of 
the  nations  hitherto  sufficiently  sad  ?  Is  not  their 
wail  over  their  own  perished  hopes  of  greatness  in 
all  the  past,  which  has  been  in  every  nation  but  a 
mass  of  broken  hopes  and  broken  hearts,  long 
enough  and  deep  enough  to  fill  the  most  vacant  ear 
with  its  weight  of  wo  ?  A  true  picture  of  the  An- 
gel of  Humanity  standing,  and  looking  in  mute 
survey  over  the  desolations  of  ages,  would  be  in 
every  ]and  but  a  mourning  Kachel,  weeping  over 
her  children  and  refusing  to  be  comforted  because 
they  are  not.  And,  as  in  ancient  fable  Niobe  was 
represented  as  metamorphosed  into  a  stone  and  yet 
even  then  shedding  tears  over  her  offspring  which 
had  been  slain,  so,  to  a  true  interpreter  of  the  si- 
lent hills,  as  they  stand  in  quiet  majesty  around 
the  vales  and  cities  of  the  old  world,  they  seem  to 
be  ever  looking  down  in  still,  stony  grief,  upon  the 
wrecks  of  human  fate  and  fortune  that  they  have 
witnessed.  That  cheerful  outlook  upon  life,  which 
Keligion  bids  us  always  take,  is  not  to  be  obtained 
from  the  stand-point  of  human  experience,  human 
history  or  human  character.  All  is  mist  and  dark- 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    329 

ness  here.  Hard  indeed  must  his  heart  be,  who  can 
look  over  the  great  sepulchral  fields  of  national 
ruin,  for  six  thousand  years,  and  feel  no  deep  pity 
for  mankind,  no  wonder  at  their  follies  and  no  ad- 
miration at  God's  amazing  patience  towards  the 
race  !  Harder  than  the  heart  of  Xerxes,  who,  in 
all  his  gorgeous  vanity,  yet  wept  to  think  that  of 
that  vast  multitude  which  stood  before  him,  not 
one  would  be  alive  at  the  end  of  a  hundred  years,  to 
remember  him  or  them  !  Caius  Marius,  that  man 
who,  though  of  stern  and  iron  heart,  sat,  himself  a 
fugitive,  with  tearful  eyes,  amid  the  ruins  of  Car- 
thage, meditating  on  all  its  wide  waste  of  splendor, 
is  no  inapt  image  of  the  picture,  which  the  Muse 
of  History  presents  to  every  thoughtful  mind,  as  she 
lays  by  her  pen  and  sits  down  to  recall  to  her  own 
thoughts  the  lessons  of  sword  and  fire  and  sorrow, 
which  she  has  recounted  unto  others. 

And  when  will  the  dawn  of  "  The  good  time 
coming/'  of  which  every  one  loves  to  hear  and 
dream  and  sing,  appear  over  all  the  earth  ?  When 
will  the  voice  of  Universal  Humanity  change  from 
a  low  wail,  as  now  in  every  land,  to  outbursts  of 
gladness  everywhere  ?  Not,  until  the  leaders  of 
society,  in  politics,  business,  fashion,  enterprise,  lit- 
erature, thought  and  religion  are  men  of  high 
thought,  pure  purposes  and  holy  aims.  Every  com- 
munity is  what  its  leaders  are,  as  truly  as  is  every 


330          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

army.  And  the  history  of  the  progressive  advance- 
ments of  society  :  and  these  are  the  elements  of 
history  that  give  it  its  value  :  is  but  a  portrayal  of 
the  lives  of  its  leaders,  as  seen  in  their  outward  ef- 
fects, instead  of  in  their  inward  workings.  What 
a  few  leaders  of  the  right  sort  can  do,  when  they 
are  in  earnest,  let  the  history  of  the  Reformation, 
or  of  Plymouth  Colony,  or  of  Modern  Missionary 
Propagandism,  in  their  now  grand  and  ever  enlarg- 
ing issues,  testify. 

§  2.  Society  has  also  the  greatest  possible  inter- 
est in  the  actual  religious  character  and  activity  of 
its  educators. 

There  are  no  such  benefactors  to  any  people,  as 
its  true  educators.  Their  bestowments  are  not 
consumed  as  they  are  made,  but  are  laid  by  in  per- 
manent investment  for  ever  new  use  while  the  world 
stands.  They  do  a  double  work  of  love  :  that,  of 
holding  up  the  light  of  their  individual  character 
and  attainments  unto  others  of  their  own  day  and 
that,  of  training  the  future  men  who  are  to  distrib- 
ute through  the  next  generation  the  ideas  and  in- 
fluences with  which  they  inspire  them.  Those  im- 
possible wishes  that  so  many  utter,  with  so  much 
feeling  :  that  they  would  fain  live  their  lives  over 
again,  since  now  they  could  improve  them  so 
much,  and  would  be  careful  to  shake  off,  if  they 
could,  those  personal  disabilities  which  now  confine 


AND  THE  PROGEESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    331 

the  energies  that  they  feel  ever  swelling,  though  re- 
strained, within  them  :  these  are  all  open  every  day 
to  the  realization  of  the  teacher.  He  does  daily 
live  over  his  life  again  in  his  pupils,  and  can  ac- 
complish in  them  and  for  them  what  he  would  like 
to  have  the  opportunity  of  doing  anew  for  himself. 
In  their  persons,  electrified  hy  his  thoughts  and 
feelings,  his  plans  and  efforts,  he  becomes,  and  with 
almost  if  not  quite  a  sort  of  double  consciousness 
of  his  multiplied  existence,  hundred-handed  for  ac- 
tion in  the  world. 

To  the  community,  therefore,  the  question,  who 
are  to  manufacture  the  character  of  the  people,  es- 
pecially in  reference  to  their  next  stage  of  develop- 
ment, and  how  they  are  to  do  it,  is  one  altogether 
above  that  of  tariffs  and  all  matters  of  mere  mone- 
tary loss  and  gain.  To  do  their  work  rightly  they 
must  be  of  course  in  advance,  in  their  ideas,  of  the 
generation  with  which  they  are  living  :  men  of  large 
attainments,  of  high-breathing  energy,  of  active 
public  spirit  and  of  all  heroic  manliness  of  charac- 
ter. The  style  of  their  work  also  should  be  in  its 
own  nature  that  which  will  endure  the  wear  of 
time,  and  stand  firm  amid  all  the  changes  of  hu- 
man feeling  and  of  human  experience.  But  the 
first  necessity  that  they  or  their  work  may  be  right 
is,  that  they  shall  both  be  intelligently  and  earnestly 
Christian. 


332          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

The  connection  between  general  intelligence 
and  general  Christianity  is  such,  that  many  social 
philosophers  have  mistaken  the  relation  between 
them,  and  pertinaciously,  if  not  honestly,  main- 
tained that  the  true  mode  of  Christianizing  any 
heathen  people  is  first,  to  enlighten  and  elevate 
them  by  other  appliances,  and  then  to  introduce 
the  gospel  as  a  divine  after-growth  among  them. 
But  there  is  no  fountain  of  quickening,  intellectual 
influences,  like  the  Bible.  Nothing  will  so  stir  the 
reason  to  its  profoundest  depths  of  thought,  as  its 
amazing  truths  :  nothing  so  kindle  the  imagination 
as  the  magnificence  of  its  revelations.  It  makes 
time  grand,  by  connecting  it  in  all  its  minutest  af- 
fairs with  eternity :  and  it  sets  over  against  our 
own  finite  consciousness  and  finite  weakness  an  In- 
finite Object  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  love  and  of 
action.  Christianity  is  the  only  real  and  the  only 
possible  elevator  of  man.  How  does  the  miserably 
imperfect  and  impure  civilization  of  ancient  Greece 
and  Kome,  amid  all  their  beautiful  works  of  mate- 
rial or  literary  art,  in  its  echo  to  this  truth,  as 
declared  in  the  better  state  of  modern  times,  as 
Christianized,  give  this  truth  a  double  significance. 
Intellectual  cultivation  can  indeed  exist,  and  in  a 
high  degree,  by  itself  and  neither  imply  nor  induce 
in  any  degree  true  religion  ;  but  not  so  with  Chris- 
tianity, which  is  something  more  than  a  mere  form 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    333 

of  social  ornamentation,  and  which,  being  in  its 
own  nature  a  quickener  to  all  the  higher  demonstra- 
tions of  the  highest  elements  of  our  nature  individ- 
ually and  collectively,  cannot  exist  alone.  Its 
march  among  the  nations  is  everywhere  with  a  bright 
train  of  attending  benefits.  Man  is  fundamentally 
a  religious  being  and  must  be  so  treated,  in  order 
to  receive  any  true  development  in  any  part  of  his 
nature,  and  much  more  in  the  whole  harmonious 
round  of  all  its  united  complications. 

In  the  Higher  Christian  Education,  as  generally 
diffused  as  possible,  lie  all  the  means  of  improving 
or  even  of  preserving  society.  It  has  been  often 
asked  in  a  reverie,  whether  the  hosts  of  Barbarism, 
which  are  still  as  ever  in  the  majority  for  numbers, 
may  not  after  all  come  down  yet  upon  the  civilized 
world,  and  sweep  away,  as  with  a  deluge  of  wrath, 
all  its  facts  and  fixtures.  We  answer  spontaneously 
and  emphatically,  No  !  And  why  ?  Because  of  the 
sure  promise  of  God  that  society  shall  keep  ever 
advancing  towards  a  perfect  state,  so  that  "  right- 
eousness shall  one  day  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 
cover  the  depths  of  the  sea  ; "  and  because  also  of 
the  inherent,  unconquerable,  vitality  of  Christianity 
itself,  as  the  greatest  of  all  the  forces  that  ever 
have  acted  upon  the  world,  or  can  act  upon  it.  The 
barriers  of  high  gospel-truth  are  indeed  invisible, 
but  all  the  more  impregnable.  Truth  can  no  more 


334          THE    HIGHER   CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

be  fought  with  guns  and  swords  than  can  light  and 
air.  And  around  the  ramparts  of  Christianity  stand 
flaming  angels,  out  of  sight,  who  love  the  truth  as 
we  love  our  lives,  and  who  stand  there  strong  and 
flaming  not  in  vain. 

The  highest  possible  degree  therefore  of  true 
Christian  education,  both  among  the  leaders  and 
the  masses  of  society,  is  the  greatest  real  necessity 
both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  world. 

IV.  Some  of  the  chief  results  already  accom- 
plished by  high  Christian  Scholarship  in  the  world. 

The  apparent  sources  of  power  are  seldom  the 
real  ones.  There  is  usually  a  power  behind  the 
throne,  as  well  as  on  it  ;  and  the  greater,  in  mod- 
ern times,  is  this  one  of  the  two.  In  the  civil  or- 
ganization of  society,  woman  is  not  recognized  at  all 
as  a  citizen  ;  and  in  many  communities  has  not  the 
common  privilege  even  of  receiving  and  transferring 
property  in  her  own  name  ;  and  yet  who  does  not 
know  that  her  influence  is  felt,  with  not  only  sub- 
duing but  also  inspiring  and  controlling  power,  in 
every  part  of  the  social  fabric.  So  scholars,  in 
their  quiet  retreats  and  by  the  silent  movements  of 
their  thoughts,  set  in  motion  the  great  noisy  ma- 
chinery of  the  times.  The  thoughts  are  generated 
in  their  minds  to-day,  that  are  to  give  shock  and 
sway  to  the  forces  of  the  age  to-morrow.  The  dif- 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    335 

ference  between  civilized  and  savage  life  is  this  : 
that  in  the  civilized  we  have  a  vast  accumulation 
of  living  influences  and  living  results,  that  have 
been  poured  forth  from  the  fountains  of  thought  in 
multitudes  of  men  in  all  the  past  ;  while  in  savage 
life,  not  more  overgrown  with  forests,  to  which  the 
word  savage  *  itself  has  reference,  is  the  face  of  na- 
ture, than  wild  and  uncultivated  also  is  every  heart 
and  every  mind.  Modern  civilization  is  therefore 
the  splendid  accumulation  of  all  the  great  and  good 
thoughts  of  the  past,  preserved  in  material  fabrics 
and  improvements,  in  books,  in  institutions,  laws 
and  customs  and  in  the  habits  of  the  Living  Age  ; 
and  the  new  improvements  of  the  times  have  come 
from  new  tides  of  thought,  pouring  out  new  bless- 
ings upon  the  community. 

The  progress  of  the  Age  is  therefore  the  pro- 
gress of  Thought  realized,  and  fixed  in  abiding 
forms.  Scholars  are  the  miners,  in  hidden  places, 
of  the  solid  ores,  which  the  busy  throng  around  con- 
vert into  the  current  coin  of  life.  Some,  as  they 
see  them  walk  in  meditative  moods  about  the  world, 
imagine  that  they  are  misanthropes,  or  at  least  quite 
ascetic  in  their  tastes,  and  full  of  all  impracticable 
abstractions  :  mere  shadows  of  what  they  might 
have  been,  endurable  as  necessary  evils  in  the  social 

*  French  sauvage,  Lat.  silvaticus,  belonging  to  a  wood. 


336  THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

state,  but  without  form  or  comeliness  themselves 
as  specimens  of  humanity.  But  hold,  ye  triflers, 
who  think  so  lightly  of  them  !  These  tranquil, 
modest  men  are  revolving  studiously  in  their  hearts, 
all  the  while,  some  larger  plans  of  good  for  you. 
Whatever  new  discoveries  are  to  be  made  for  the 
advancement  of  your  personal  comfort,  or  of  your 
personal  sphere  of  activity  and  prosperity,  they  must 
be  originated  in  their  thoughts. 

The  material  workers  of  the  world  know  not 
how  materialistic  are  their  conceptions.  Happy 
are  they,  if  they  do  not  entirely  exclude  God  Him- 
self from  the  orb  of  their  vision  ;  even  from  both 
the  centre  and  the  circumference  of  His  own  works, 
in  their  comprehension  of  them.  This  at  least  is 
an  instructive  fact,  that  the  sceptical  thinkers 
among  the  masses  are  the  most  abundant  among 
mechanics,  who  are  perpetually  at  work  amid  the 
fixed  laws  and  elements  of  matter  and  upon  them. 
False  political  economists,  applying  the  gauge  of 
material  productiveness  to  the  men  of  thought, 
claim  that,  as  they  do  not  produce  the  means  of 
bodily  subsistence,  they  are  no  true  producers  at 
all  :  forgetting  that,  as  they  give  higher  facilities 
and  finish  and  wider  applications  and  uses  to  even 
the  physical  and  mechanical  products  of  the  age, 
they  add,  in  the  direction  of  greater  fertility  of  soil 
and  greater  skill  in  working  it,  greater  ease  and  ex- 


AND    THE    PROGRESS    OF    THE    PEOPLE.         337 

tent  of  manufacture,  and  greater  range  of  use  for 
both  space  and  time,  the  highest  of  all  material  ele- 
ments of  advantage  to  material  products  ;  while, 
in  elevating  the  inward  character  and  power  of 
those  who  use  them,  they  make  those,  for  whom  all 
forms  of  matter  as  originated  from  God  or  modified 
by  man  were  made,  and  but  for  whom  they  are  ut- 
terly functionless  of  themselves,  of  a  far  nobler  and 
better  style  of  being.  Others  therefore  enjoy  under 
their  influence  the  good  to  be  obtained  from  things 
physical  in  higher  degrees  than  otherwise  ;  and  their 
varied  elements  are  thereby  made  to  contribute  to 
the  sustenance,  activity  and  enjoyment,  practically, 
of  a  higher  order  of  Humanity.  Metals  and  prod- 
ucts and  fabrics  of  any  large  or  high  sort  are  not 
wanted,  where  the  products  of  the  mind  are  want- 
ing. 

Scholarship  is  usually  thought  to  be  inherently 
addicted  to  conservative  ideas.  It  is  indeed  ;  but 
it  is  also  full,  in  all  its  high  and  true  forms,  of  an 
earnest  spirit  of  progress.  Both  elements  are  es- 
sential to  a  true  well-harmonized  character  in  an 
individual,  or  in  the  community  at  large.  Every 
thing  good  is  to  be  carefully  conserved  at  the  same 
time  that  every  evil  thing  is  to  be  diligently  re- 
moved. The  two  ordinances,  to  "  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good,"  and  to  "  turn  men  from  the  power 
of  Satan  unto  God,"  agree  together  and  must  be 
15 


338          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

combined  in  any  individual  or  State,  that  would 
have  a  divine  temper  or  do  an  abiding  work  for 
God.  In  an  age  and  a  country  so  full  of  the  chances 
of  material  prosperity  as  ours,  it  is  indeed  true  that 
the  majority  of  those  who  have  chosen  a  life  of 
study  have  been  men  of  quiet  and  even  of  phleg- 
matic temperaments  :  especially  those  who  have 
devoted  themselves  to  education,  where,  of  all  fields 
of  labor,  both  for  the  style  of  work  to  be  done  and 
the  style  of  results  to  be  gained  in  it,  it  is  abso- 
lutely requisite,  that  those  who  undertake  it  should 
be  men  of  the  most  energetic  manly  qualities  of 
person,  intellect  and  action.  The  preponderance 
accordingly  of  conservative  tendencies  in  the  edu- 
cated men  of  our  land  is  to  be  greatly  charged,  to 
the  special  constitutional  type  of  the  class  of  minds 
that  have  thus  far  been  influenced  to  choose  the 
life  of  the  scholar.  He  who  enters  in  this  country 
upon  the  profession  of  the  ministry  or  of  education, 
or  becomes  one  of  that  small  number  entitled  the 
literary  class,  must  ordinarily  relinquish,  at  the  out- 
set, all  those  prospects  of  gain  which  are  so  abun- 
dant in  every  other  calling,  in  a  land  so  full  of  all 
great  resources  of  material  wealth,  and  so  suddenly 
opened,  with  its  many  secret  springs  of  prosperity,  to 
the  range  of  modern  enterprise,  and  to  all  the  ap- 
pliances of  modern  invention,  activity  and  progress. 
The  two  great  speculative  tendencies  of  men  in 


AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.    339 

wrong  directions  are  those  to  Scepticism  and  Super- 
stition, or  to  doubt  and  credulity,  which  are  the 
two  opposite  poles  of  a  wrong  heart.  These,  with 
the  accompanying  ignorance  from  which  they  spring, 
are  the  sources  of  all  human  error.  There  is  noth- 
ing of  power  enough  to  destroy  them,  and  nothing 
really  antagonistic  to  them,  but  Christian  Truth 
and  Christian  Scholarship.  Education  and  religion 
each  tend  to  destroy  both  scepticism  and  supersti- 
tion, and  consequently  with  double  force,  when 
combined.  They  meet  at  many,  yea  rather,  when 
in  their  full  development  and  activity,  at  all  points, 
in  harmonious  action.  If  true  religion  tends  to 
make  a  man  modest  and  humble,  so  does  true  edu- 
cation. Each  liberalizes  the  mind,  and  each  tends 
to  make  the  balance  firm  and  true  of  all  its  thoughts 
and  impulses.  Each  habituates  it  to  circumspection, 
prudence,  care,  and  watchful  continuity  of  right  pur- 
pose and  of  right  action.  Each  is  full  of  all  strong 
restraints  from  folly  and  from  crime  :  and  crime  is  but 
folly  in  its  stronger  forms  ;  and  each  abounds  also  in 
all  quickening  influences  and  results.  From  the 
records  of  crime  the  names  of  highly  educated  men 
are  delightfully  absent ;  and  in  communities,  where 
there  is  the  most  education  among  the  masses,  there 
is  to  be  found  with  those  born  on  the  soil  the  most 
general  freedom  from  all  the  grosser  forms  of  de- 
pravity. 


340          THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

Such  an  upward  bearing  has  our  Maker  given 
to  our  natures,  that7  in  all  nations  men  look  in- 
stinctively to  those  above  them  for  guidance.  In 
Heathen  lands  they  turn,  if  bold,  to  their  chief- 
tains, to  lead  them  on  to  deeds  of  blood  ;  or,  if 
submissive  and  desponding,  under  the  power  of  des- 
potic masters,  they  bend  before  them  in  craven  obei- 
sance to  thank  them  for  the  privilege  of  breathing 
in  their  presence.  In  more  enlightened  lands  the 
same  spell  of  influence,  although  more  invisible  in 
its  action,  is  thrown  by  those  who  are  superior  in 
power,  over  those  beneath  them.  Men,  accordingly, 
move  even  in  the  Church,  composed  nominally  of 
the  Lord's  freemen,  in  denominational  lines  and  in 
philosophical  schools  and  under  prescribed  doctrinal 
banners  and  with  the  certain  sound  of  creed-trump- 
ets. Fashion  rules  in  matters  of  opinion  as  impe- 
riously over  the  mass,  as  in  the  minor  articles  of 
dress  and  manners.  The  elements  of  society  are 
not  merely  compacted  together  as  if  by  some  fortu- 
nate action  of  human  affinities  in  such  a  way,  but 
are  rather  constructed  into  a  great  harmonious 
mechanism,  as  a  wondrous  piece  of  divine  work- 
manship ;  and  all  the  more  wondrous,  for  its  stabil- 
ity and  elasticity  and  impressible  qualities  of  every 
kind,  because  made  of  living  hearts  each  endowed 
with  full  power  of  self-direction,  and  composed  of 
members  that  are  not  the  same  for  any  considerable 


AND    THE    PROGRESS   OF    THE    PEOPLE.         341 

time,  either  in  themselves  or  in  their  combinations.' 
Of  this  grand  enginery  the  scholars  of  the  world 
are  the  directors,  determining  towards  what  ends 
it  shall  work,  and  with  what  amount  of  inward 
force.  But  for  them  it  would  be  motionless,  or  if 
moving  it  would  move  only  in  perverted  directions. 
All  the  new  inventions  of  the  day  are  but  the  new 
ideas  of  studious  thinkers  wrought  into  wood  and 
stone  and  iron.  Without  scholars  the  world  would 
be  without  books,  without  philosophy,  without  in- 
ventions, without  opinions,  without  thought  and 
witkout  religion. 

How  great  then  are  the  responsibilities  of  edu- 
cated men !  Their  ideas  and  tastes  and  habits  and 
decrees  are  the  mighty,  though  unwritten,  laws  of 
society.  From  the  energy  of  their  mental  move- 
ments, comes  the  shock  that  moves  all  its  wheels. 

And  how  great  are  the  duties  of  each  genera- 
tion, in  this  matter,  to  posterity  !  The  utmost 
possible  facilities  should  be  furnished  in  every  age, 
not  only  for  procuring  and  diffusing  at  the  time  the 
Higher  Christian  Education,  but  also  for  perpetu- 
ating it  for  ever.  As  all  the  advanced  points  of 
Modern  Civilization  have  been  gained  by  earnest 
Christian  study,  thought,  argument  and  authorship, 
in  the  same  way  must  they  be  maintained  and  new 
points  beyond  be  reached.  What  has  been  gained 


342         THE    HIGHER    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION. 

in  the    past  must  be  both  preserved,  and  enlarged 
to  new  degrees  of  extent  and  of  excellence. 

Let  then  the  people  know  well  their  own  guides 
and  deliverers.  Let  them  recognize  their  indebt- 
edness to  Christianity,  for  all  the  light  of  life  and 
the  glory  of  society.  And,  if  they  would  wreathe 
their  names  with  grateful  memories  in  the  hearts  of 
their  descendants,  let  them  be  careful  to  leave,  in 
every  permanent  form,  as  large  a  legacy  as  possible 
of  true  sanctified  thoughts  and  influences.  The  real 
riches  of  any  life  to  mankind  consist  in  the  contri- 
bution that  it  makes,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the 
common  stock  of  Human  Intelligence,  Human 
Comfort  and  Human  Goodness. 


INDEX. 


Accommodation  of  Requisitions,  195. 

Accuracy,  a  Jewel,  225,  233. 

Acquisition,  Pleasures  of,  20T. 

Acropolis,  112. 

Action,  Valued  by  the  Ancients,  67. 

Aesthetics,  92,  293. 

Age,  Wants  of  the,  147. 

Ambition,  170. 

Anatomy  Revealing  God,  99. 

Ancient  Education,  66-7. 

Aristotle,  204,  206. 

Art:  Ancient,  67,108-9;  to  be  Culti- 
vated, 108-9,  119 ;  its  Chief  Beauties, 
210,  234. 

Aspiration,  112-14. 

Athens,  112 ;  Athenians,  304. 


B. 

Bacon,  Lord,  206,  203. 

Beauty ;  its  Office  in  Education,  105-8 ; 
the  Scholar's  Sense  of  it,  231. 

Benevolence  Necessary  to  Happiness, 
93,  115-6. 

Bible:  its  Place  in  Schools  and  Col- 
leges, 110-2;  its  Power,  332. 

Bible-truth :  its  Loveliness,  89. 

Body  :  its  Divine  Use  and  Dignity,  78; 
Exquisitely  Formed,  215,  257. 

Books,  Garners  of  Ancient  Thought, 
104 ;  of  the  Beauty  of  Nature,  108. 


C. 

Csesar,  204,  286. 
Calvin,  117,  206. 

Carbonic  Acid  Gas,  34.    See  Ventila- 
tion. 


Character,  n,  Field  of  Art,  49-51 ;  its 
Power,  184;  Talent  in  Reading  it, 
181. 

Cheerfulness,  80-1, 133,  179,  260. 

Chemistry:  its  Utility,  96;  its  Revela- 
tion of  Ood,  99. 

Childhood :  its  Special  Appeals  to  our 
Interest,  153,  175 ;  the  Common 
Abuse  of  it,  154. 

Christ,  the  Teacher's  Object,  23-6, 124, 
141,  242;  His  Model,  125;  Christ's 
Gentleness,  76. 

Christianity,  Dignifies  the  Body,  78 ; 
its  Influence  on  Scholarship,  334;  its 
Popularization  of  Every  Thintr  Good, 
273-6 ;  its  Reforming  Power,  182 ;  It- 
self, the  Completeness  of  Humanity, 
807-8;  Subjective  Christianity,  326.' 

Church:  God's  Mode  of  Developing, 

Cicero,  117,  204. 

Civilization  Modern,  in  what  it  con- 
sists, 335. 
Classics,  the  Right  Mode  of  Teaching, 

Classicality,  not  Frigidity,  241. 

Colleges,  as  Places  of  Ill-health,  40; 
their  Present  Imperfection,  103.  289; 
their  Formalism,  176-7 ;  College- 
strifes,  267-8. 

Color,  Perfection  of,  71. 

Common  Schools,  2.»6-9. 

Communicativeness,  193. 

Composition  :  the  Art  of,  Splendid, 
120;  Excellence  in,  a  Late  Attain- 
ment, 193 ;  Value  of.  in  Self-improve- 
ment, 118,  252-3;  Rules  for,  253-4; 
False  Display  in,  192-3.  299. 

Concentration  of  Mind,  234-6. 

Confidence,  Necessity  of,  187. 

Conservatism  of  Scholarship,  223,  246. 

Conversational  Power,  88. 


344 


INDEX. 


Corporeal  Punishment,  183. 
Creation,  its  End,  13. 
Crises,  170. 
Criticism,  92. 

Critic,  the  One  to  Work  for,  God,  241. 
Critical  Scholarship,  225,  228,  233. 
Crowns:  their  History  Among  the  An- 
cients, 303. 


Declamation  :  Yalne  of  True  Drill  in 
it,  117,  193  ;  False  Displays  of,  192-3, 
299. 

Degrees  Honorary:  Bad  Effects  of, 
803-10;  How  Obtained,  308-10  ;  the 
Littleness  of  Hankering  after  them, 
312;  Iluinboldt's  Contempt  of  them, 
314;  the  Church  the  Means  of  Sus- 
taining them,  314-18 ;  the  Folly  of 
the  Title  of  Honorable,  318  ;  the 
Good  Signs  of  Progress  Apparent, 
317 :  the  Way  to  Abolish  them,  318. 

Demosthenes,  67,  117,  204. 

Design :  Proves  a  Designer,  99-100, 167 ; 
Wonders  of,  257-S. 

Development  Intellectual,  45-7 ;  Indi- 
vidually Adapted,  115. 

Devil,  Pleased  with  False  Ide,as  of  Ed- 
ucation, 33,  40. 

Devotion  to  God,  242. 

Difficulties,  225,  248. 

Discipline  (Subjectively),  87;  (Objec- 
tively) Meaning  of  the  Word,  298 ; 
Object  of,  43,  114-15  :  to  be  Exact, 
17-2-5;  to  be  Genial,  175-8, 196;  Style 
of  European,  174;  Eight  Treatment 
of  the  Erring,  175 ;  Results  of"  True 
Discipline,  122, 197,  243. 

Divination,  19. 

Drill,  Makes  the  Scholar,  43;  its  Ne- 
cessity, 115,  161 ;  What  it  Should  be, 
291 ;  Weakly,  Relaxed,  300. 

Dullards,  30,  169,  302. 

Dwight,  37. 

Dyspepsia,  40. 


Earnestness:  Great  Want  of  it  Among 
Teachers,  151 ;  Necessary,  61  ;  the 
Path  to  Success,  188;  that  of  the 
True  Scholar,  232-5,  241-3. 

Eating,  Right  Habits  of,  259-61. 

Education:  Nobility  of,  8-22,  199;  a 
Profession,  10-18,  163;  an  Art,  11, 
44-5,  47,  51, 126,  161 ;  in  Reference  to 
Christianity,  7, 23-6 ;  Results  of  when 
Poor,  24;  True  Ends  to  be  Gained, 
43-51,  122,  163,  168,  193,  197,  243;  the 
Results  Actually  Gained  Unsatisfac- 
tory, 7,  58-60,  148.  150,  169,  173,  198, 
229,  281 ;  Influence  of  Natural  Beau- 
ty, 105-8;  Should  be  Extended  to 


the  Art-side  of  Our  Natures,  109; 
Should  be  Religious,  125-6, 142 ;  How 
the  Erring  Should  be  Treated,  182-8. 

Edwards,  37,  206,  214. 

Egyptians,  204. 

Emrnons,  87. 

Encouragement  of  Pupils,  157. 

Energy  of  Body  and  Mind,  74. 

Enthusiasm,  Power  of,  18-19. 

Envy,  322,  325. 

Etymologies  Specific :  Health,  Heal, 
Hale,  Whole  and  Holy,  68;  Right 
and  Wrong,  70 ;  Face  and  Features, 
72;  Gentle  and  Genteel,  76;  Man, 
Mind,  Mean,  Remember,  81 ;  Kind, 
Humane,  Generous,  83 ;  Industry, 
Indue  and  Endow,  113  ;  Miserly,  116; 
Instruct  and  Instrument,  156 ;  School, 
182;  Character,  184;  Forgive,  204; 
Fortitude,  '-28  ;  Student,  229 ;  Thor- 
ough, 233  ;  Integrity  and  Entire,  243; 
Supper,  Sop  and  Soup,  260  ;  Savage, 
835. 

Examinations,  Character  of,  192-3. 

Example,  Power  of,  121,  252,  322-3. 

Exhibitions,  Generally  Farcical,  192, 
299. 

Evil  Moral,  71. 


F. 

Fame,  Love  of,  25. 

Fashion,  Power  of,  30,  340. 

Female  Education,  Defects  of,  87-8; 

Degrees,  313. 
Form,  Beauty  of  to  the  Ancients,  67, 

71 ;  Perfection  of,  71. 
Formalism,  176. 

Freedom  of  Scholars,  203,  218-23. 
French  University  System,  98. 


G. 

Games,  Ancient,  67,  204. 

Genius,  for  Government,  170;  often  a 
Drawback  in  a  Pupil,  196;  False 
Proofs  of,  213 ;  Fitful  Flashes  of,  227 ; 
Best  Proofs  of,  236;  Self-evincive, 
802. 

Gentleness  and  Gentlemanliness,  76. 

Geology:  its  Practical  Uses,  96;  its 
Manifestation  of  God,  100. 

Germany  and  the  Germans,  37,  40,  86 ; 
German  Aesthetics,  92;  Education, 
98;  German,  as  a  Study,  10o;  its 
Words  Descriptive,  255. 

God :  as  an  Educator,  13, 158 ;  His  Love 
to  Man,  15,  238 :  the  Sense  of  His  Ex- 
istence where  Gained,  167-8;  Usu  to 
be  Made  of  His  Word,  110,  and  of 
His  Presence  and  Love,  46,  111,  157, 
191-2,  ^31-2,  239,  264;  Aiming  at  His 
Glory,  191. 

Goethe,  37. 


INDEX. 


345 


Government :  Elements  of  Success  in, 
83,  177-S;  Punishment,  183. 

Gracefulness,  74-5. 

Greeks,  39,  86,  112,  204,  332. 

Greek  Education,  67. 

Grimm,  37,  206. 

Growth  of  Mind  47,  49 ;  Dependent  on 
Mental  Activity,  178  ;  Sources  of 
Growth,  320. 

Gymnasia,  German,  290. 


H. 

Health,  Meaning  of  the  Word,  68 ;  a 
Duty,  Power  and  Joy,  69-70;  for 
Beauty,  70-2 ;  the  Resultant  of  What, 
77,  263-7;  its  Moral  Uses,  73-4. 

Heathenism,  20,  72. 

Herculaneum,  66. 

Hereditary  Evils,  262-3. 

Heroism,  20,  224;  True  Heroes,  227. 

History:  Value  of  the  Study,  84, 164, 
the  True  Mode,  tho  Philosophical, 
85,165;  True  Mode  of  Teaching  it, 
86,  166. 

Homer,  19. 

Honor,  12,  135;  Human  Honor  as  an 
Object,  139 ;  the  Result  of  Character, 
221;  its  Superficial  Forms,  226-7; 
Not  Marketable,  304 ;  Honorablenets, 
267-8 ;  Title  of  Honorable,  318. 

Hopefulness,  225-6. 

Horace,  133. 

Human  Nature,  Knowledge  of,  82-3. 

Humboldt:  his  Age,  27;  his  Contempt 
of  Titles,  314. 

Hygienic  Rules:  Good  Air, 35  ;  Mental 
Activity,  36-7,  69 ;  Industry,  27,  247  ; 
Joy,  255.  See  word  Joy ;  Religious 
Stimulations,  68,  77-8,  80;  Moderate 
Eating,  259-151 ;  Evils  of  High  Sea- 
Boned  Food,  261,  and  of  Stimulating 
Drinks,  261 ;  Power  of  Strong  Health, 
256-7. 


I. 


Ideas :  their  Power,  55 ;  the  Staple  of 
Instruction,  160  ;  Pleasure  of  Acquir- 
ing, 208. 

Ideals :  the  Teacher's,  51 :  to  be  Formed 
for  the  Student  Rightly,  159  ;  Those 
of  the  True  Scholar,  236. 

Ideal,  of  College  Education :  Sugges- 
tions for  Improving,  103-5,  293. 

Idleness  of  Mind:  its  Unhealthiness, 
29 ;  its  Baseness,  285 ;  its  Great  Prev- 
alence, 150,  277-9.  See  Indiffercnt- 
ism. 

Indifferentism,  Abounding,  15,  59-60, 
150,  169-,  266,  277-8,  283. 

Individual  Treatment  in  Education, 
284-6 ;  Want  of  it  in  Common  Schools, 
297-8. 

Ir  dustry :  Meaning  of  the  Word,  113 ; 


its  Necessity,  79, 17S,  179, 192, 247 ;  its 
Connections  with  Religion,  33;  its 
Supposed  Dangerousness,  33. 

Influence,  Insensible,  52.  184. 

Ingratitude  of  Youth,  57. 

Insight.  Necessity  of,  166;  the  Schol- 
ar's, 223,  230-2,  244. 

Instruction  :  Meaning  of  the  Word, 
156;  True  Spirit  of,  151-2;  its  Mode, 
161 ;  its  Highest  Departments,  162. 


jr. 

Joy:  as  Ministrant  to  Health,  27,83, 
56,  70,  80,  263-7  ;  to  Power  over  Oth- 
ers, 146 ;  the  Joy  of  Mental  Toil.  235, 
257;  See  Words,  Work  and  Indus- 
try ;  Reasons  for  Joy,  263-6. 


K. 


Koran,  110. 


Labor  :  Necessary  to  Success,  192  ; 
Should  be  Made  a  Joy,  143,  224;  No 
Curse,  144-5;  Without  Thought  Bru- 
tish, 282. 

Language,  the  Chief  of  all  Studies,  86, 
169,  2/1;  Relation  of  Ancient  Lan- 
guages, 251. 

Law,  in  all  God's  Works,  77, 172 ;  God's 
Law  the  Basis  of  all  Laws,  307 ;  Le- 
gal Science  as  a  Study,  101-2. 

Lecturing,  164,  168. 

Leibnitz,  37,  206. 

Le  Verrier,  96. 

Life,  the  True  View  of,  232. 

Literature :  its  Historic  Continuity,  90 ; 
its  Treasures,  90  ;  English  Literature, 
91 ;  Historical  Composition  as  a 
Branch  of  it,  164. 

Little  Things,  210,  211. 

Logic,  as  a  Study,  101. 

Luther,  20,  117. 

Bf. 

Mammon,  its  Power,  16, 17. 

Man  :  Meaning  of  the  Word,  81 ;  True 

Manliness,  175,  306  ;  Human  Dignity, 

279-81  ;    Impressibility  of   Human 

Mind,  121. 
Mar i us,  329. 
Material  Influences:  their  Power  on 

the  Mind,  26,   66-78;  Materialistic 

Ideas,  175,  336. 
Mathematics,  94,  103. 
Maxims  of  Scholarship,  237. 
Mechanical  Teaching,  54,  60,  117. 
Medical  Art,  Secrets  of,  56. 
Mental  Influences,  their  Power  on  the 

Body,  27. 


346 


INDEX. 


Mental  Science,  its  Rank,  101 ;  the  Ba- 
sis of  Divine  Science,  82. 

Mind,  the  Source  of  Modern  Power, 
116,  204. 

Minerva,  81,  112. 

Ministry  :  its  Work  Compared  with 
that  of  Education,  21,  127. 

Mistakes  in  Education,  58,  141. 

Monotony  in  Teaching,  55. 

Moral  Science,  its  Place  and  Use,  101. 

Moses,  214 

N.       . 

Napoleon,  19,  25, 185. 

Nature,  for  Man,  14,  84,  105-8,  263-6; 

Practically  Deified,  169. 
Nelson,  25. 
Nicety,  in  Art  and  Scholarship,  210, 

283-4. 
Niobe,  328. 

Nobility,  its  History,  304. 
Nordheimer,  35. 
Novelty,  Unnecessary  to  Enthusiasm, 

55. 
Numa,  19. 

O. 

Objectivity,  33,  93,  239,  250,  264. 

Obstacles :  the  Will  Made  to  Conquer 
Them,  29 ;  to  be  Purposely  Set  Be- 
fore Scholars,  157 ;  they  Yield  to  Ef- 
fort, 248. 

Order :  the  True  Conception  of  it  in  a 
Teacher,  171-3 ;  the  Love  of  it  in  a 
Pupil,  197. 


V. 

Pastime,  Killing  Time,  29. 

Patience ;  its  Sources,  225,  228 ;  its 
Power,  227. 

Paul,  19,  66,  117,  206,  214,  228,  232,  316. 

Personal  Influence,  51-8,  138-40,  184. 

Philology  :  its  Great  Discoveries,  88. 

Physical  Strength  the  Basis  of  Ancient 
Society,  204-5. 

Physicians,  Mistakes  of,  31,  262. 

Physiology :  its  Profitableness,  96,  97 ; 
its  Revelation  of  God,  100. 

Pitt's  Habits,  261. 

Plato,  204,  206,  207. 

Plymouth  Colony,  330. 

Political  Economy,  102. 

Power,  the  Sense  of  it  Joyful,  218. 

Practicality,  60,  73,  93,  105,  168,  226, 
244,  249. 

Preaching  and  Teaching  Compared,  21. 

Prevention,  180. 

Private  Schools,  their  Scope  and  Val- 
ue, 2S6. 

Prizes :  those  of  Life,  44 ;  Influence  of 
False  Ones,  139. 

Professions,  the  Learned,  16-17. 


Progress  of  Society  Slow,  277,  307 ;  in 
what  the  Progress  of  the  Age  con- 
sists, 835. 

Proverbs,  82,  91,  208,  240,  258,  276,  300, 
301,  306. 

Providence:  Dishonored,  40;  God's 
Gentleness  in  it,  76;  as  Shown  in 
History,  86,  166;  the  Beauty  of  it, 
192;  its  Positiveness,  225 ;  its  Inti- 
macy, 240. 

Public  Schools:  the  Term  of  Study 
Advised  in  them,  36 ;  their  Common. 
Character,  296-9. 

Punishment  Corporeal,  183. 


Qualifications  of  a  Teacher,  18,  22, 
193-5. 

R. 

Realities,  their  Preciousness,  301. 
Eeceptivity  of  the  Mind,  81. 
Recitations,  the  True  Ideal  of,  159. 
Reforming  Power  of  Christianity,  its 

Glory,  189. 
Religion  :    Made    Unlovely    to    the 

Young,  190;  Religious  Development 

the  Only  True  One,  240-3. 
Responsiveness,  to  Outward  Objects, 

45,   142,  236;   to  Others1  Influence, 

176. 

Reynolds,  109. 
Rhetoric,  92. 
Romans,  the,  39,  228. 
Rulers :  Ancient,  204;  Modern,  205. 
Ruskin,  109. 

S. 

Satire,  Obnoxious,  300. 

Science:  Acquaintance  with,  94-105; 
the  Exact  Sciences,  94;  the  Natural, 
95;  their  Recent  Origin,  &c.,  96; 
Profit  of  their  Study,  97-8;  True 
Mode  of  Teaching,  16l". 

Scholarship :  Meaning  of  the  Word, 
203;  its  Two  Forms,  General  and 
Special,  149-50,  209;  its  Glory  when 
Diffused,  151  ;  its  Characteristics, 
Patience,  Enthusiasm  and  Thorough- 
ness, 224-44 ;  its  Faults  in  this  Coun- 
try, Haste  and  Narrowness,  103,  249 ; 
its  Relations  to  Evangelism,  213,  215. 

Schoolmasters  Practically  Dishonored, 
10,.  16. 

Scrutiny  God's,  191. 

Self-culture  :  its  Necessity,  156 ;  its 
True  Style,  Intellectually,  250-3. 

Self-denial :  the  Sense  of  it  as  Selfish, 
142,  175  ;  in  its  Highest  Form,  Self- 
Forgetfulness,  142. 

Selfishness,  175,  182. 

Shakspeare,  91,  232. 


INDEX. 


347 


Simplicity  of  Dress,  306;  of  Character, 

335-6. 

Socrates,  19,  117. 
Solitude,  207. 
Solomon,  79,  206,  20S,  214. 
Speech  :  the  Vehicle  of  Thought,  116 ; 

to  be  Cultivated,  lia 
State :   Duties  of  the,  to  Educational 

Institutions,    284-8  ;    the    Benefits 

Received  by  it  from  them,  287-8. 
Stimulation,  in  Teaching,  42. 
Success,  Eeasons  of  Failure  in,  94. 


T. 

Tact,  179-83. 

Tasks,  171. 

Teacher :  a  True  One,  57 ;  131-98 ;  his 
Pu-ul  Position  in  his  Age,  50,  127, 
199;  His  Call,  18,  113,  133;  His  Call- 
ing, 10,  IS,  20,  127,  135 ;  Grounds  of 
Enthusiasm  in  his  Work,  56,  83  ;  his 
Characteristics,  57,  193;  his  Work 
Compared  with  that  of  the  Minister, 
21,  127;  with  that  of  the  Parent,  136, 
177  ;  if  a  Dullard,  Contemptible,  54, 
59,  163;  Many  a  One  Ungenial,  175, 

Teaching.    See  Education. 

Text-Books,  True  Use  of,  162. 

Theories  False,  their  Power,  29,  69,  266. 

Thoroughness,  233. 

Thought,  its  Hygienic  Power,  36,  78, 
93 ;  its  Power  ou  the  World,  116,  204 ; 
it  Gives  Dignity  to  Labor,  282  ;  Ex- 
pression to  the  Face,  72,  79 ;  Finish 
to  the  Body,  78;  its  Pleasures,  265 ; 
its  Acceptableness  to  God,  79. 

Titles,  18,  105;  their  Tendency  to  De- 
generate, 804 ;  Pleasing  to  Weak 
Minds,  306. 


Tobacco,  261-3. 

Truth  :  its  Charms,  212,  215;  its  Power 
when  Combined  with  Love,  177. 


TJ. 

Uniforms,  Un-American,  305. 
Universities,  what  they  Should    Be, 
291. 

V. 

Vedas,  110. 
Ventilation,  34,  38-41. 
Vigor  of  Nerve,  75. 
Voluntary  System  Tested,  173. 


W. 

War :  its  Exactions,  286. 

Washington,  185. 

Woman,  Power  of,  334. 

Work  :  the  Law  of  Success,  192, 241 ;  as 

a  Source  of  Joy,  217,  226,  235,  254-6. 

See  Joy;  see  also  Labor,  Industry, 

&c. 


Xenophon,  204. 
Xerxes,  329. 


X. 


Yale  College :  the  Number  Educated 

by  it,  29o. 
Youth:   its  Sensibility  to  Impressions, 

127, 142. 

Z. 

Zeal,  113,  170,  229,  263. 


THE      END. 


NATIONAL  SERIES  G*  STAHDABD  SCHOOL-BOOKS. 


MONTEITH    AND 


MONTEITH'S  FIRST  LESSONS  IN  GEOGRAPHY Price  $0  25 

MONTEITH'S  INTRODUCTION  TO  MANUAL  OF  GEOGRAPHY.     0  40 

MONTEITH'S  NEW  MANUAL  OF  GEOGRAPHY 0  60 

McNALLY'S  COMPLETE  SCHOOL  GEOGRAPHY...  .     1  00 


Monteith's  First  Lessons  in  Geography—  Introduction  to  Man- 
ual of  Geography—  and  New  Manual  of  Geography,  are  arranged  on 
the  catechetical  plan,  which  has  been  proven  to  be  the  best  and  most  successful 
method  of  teaching  this  branch  of  study.  The  questions  and  answers  are  models  of 
brevity  and  adaptation,  and  the  maps  are  simple,  but  accurate  and  beautiful. 

McKTally's  Geography  completes  the  Series,  and  follows  the  same  general 
plan.  The  maps  are  splendidly  engraved,  beautifully  colored,  and  perfectly  accurate; 
and  a  profile  of  the  country,  showing  the  elevations  and  depressions  of  land,  is  given 
at  the  bottom  of  the  maps.  The  order  and  arrangement  of  map  questions  is  also 
peculiarly  happy  and  systematic,  and  the  descriptive  matter  just  what  is  needed,  and 
nothing  more.  No  Series  heretofore  published  has  been  so  extensively  introduced  in 
6o  short  a  time,  or  gained  such  a  wide-spread  popularity. 

These  Geographies  are  used  more  extensively  in  the  Public  Schools  of  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  and  Newark,  than  all  others. 


.  B.  CLARK,  Principal  of  one  of  the  largest  Public  Schools  in  Brooklyn,  eays: 
"I  have  used  over  a  thousand  copies  of  Monteith's  Manual  of  Geography  since  ita 
adoption  by  the  Board  of  Education,  and  am  prepared  to  say  it  is  the  best  work  for 
junior  and  intermediate  classes  in  our  schools  I  have  ever  seen." 

Th«  Series,  in  whole  or  in  part,  has  been  adopted  in  the 


New  York  State  Normal  School. 
New  York  City  Normal  School. 
New  Jersey  State  Normal  School. 
Kentucky  State  Normal  School. 
Indiana  State  Normal  School. 
Ohio  State  Normal  School. 
Michigan  State  Normal  School. 
York  County  (Pa.)  Normal  Schoo.. 
Brooklyn  Polytechnic  Institute. 
Cleveland  Female  Seminary. 
Public  Schools  of  Milwaukie. 
Publu:  Schools  of  Pittsburgh. 
Public  Schools  of  Lancaster,  Pa. 
Public  Schools  of  New  Orleans. 


Public  Schaols  of  New  York. 
Public  Schools  of  Brooklyn,  L.  L 
Public  Schools  of  New  Haven. 
Public  Schools  of  Toledo,  Ohio. 
Public  Schools  of  Norwalk,  Conn. 
Public  Schools  of  Richmond,  V». 
Public  Schools  of  Madison,  Wis. 
Public  Schools  of  Indianapolis. 
Public  Schools  of  Springfield,  Masg. 
Public  Schools  of  Columbus,  Ohio. 
Public  Schools  of  Hartford.  Conn. 
Public  Schools  of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

And  other  places  too  numerous  to 
mention. 


They  have  also  been  recommended  by  the  State  Superintendents  of  ILLINOIS, 
INDIANA,  WISCONSIN,  MISSOURI.  NORTH  CAROLINA,  ALABAMA,  and  by  numerous 
Teachers'  Associations  and  Institutes  throughout  the  country,  and  are  in  successful 
use  in.  multitude  of  Public  and  Private  Schools  throughout  the  United  States. 

A.  S.  BAENES  &  BURK,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  Yor*. 


NATIONAL  SERIES  OF  STANDARD  SCHOOL-BOOKS. 


ENGLISH  GRAMMAR, 

BY  S.  W.  CLARK  AND  A.  S.  WELCH, 

CONSISTIN&  OJf 

CLARE'S  FIRST  LESSONS  IN  ENGLISH  GRAMMAR Price  $0  30 

CLARK'S  NEW  ENGLISH  GRAMMAR 0  60 

CLARK'S  GRAMMATICAL  CHART 2  50 

CLARK'S  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 0  40 

WELCH' S  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SENTENCE 0  75 

A  more  Advanced  Work,  designed  for  Higher  Classes  In  Academies  and  Normal 
Schools.  By  A.  8.  WELCH,  A.  M.,  Principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  of 
Michigan,  at  Ypsilanti. 


The  First  Lessons  in  Grammar  are  prepared  for  young  pupils,  and  as  an 
appropriate  introduction  to  the  larger  work.  The  elements  of  Grammar  are  here 
presented  in  a  series  of  gradual  oral  exercises,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  in  plain  Saxon 
words. 

Clark's  New  Grammar,  it  is  confidently  believed,  presents  the  only  true 
and  successful  method  of  teaching  the  science  of  the  English  Language.  The  work  is 
thoroughly  progressive  and  practical ;  the  relations  of  elements  happily  illustrated, 
and  their  analysis  thorough  and  simple. 

This  Grammar  has  been  officially  recommended  by  the  Superintendents  of  Public 
Instruction  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Missouri,  and  is  the  Text-book 
adopted  in  the  State  Normal  Schools  of  New  York,  and  other  States.  Its  extensive 
circulation  and  universal  success  is  good  evidence  of  its  practical  worth  and  superi- 
ority. 

Professor  F.  S.  JEWELL,  of  the  New  York  State  Normal  School,  says: 

"  Clark's  System  of  Grammar  is  worthy  of  the  marked  attention  of  the  friends  of 
Education.  Its  points  of  excellence  are  of  the  most  decided  character,  and  will  not 
soon  be  surpassed." 

"  Let  any  clear-headed,  independent-minded  teacher  master  the  system,  and  then 
give  it  a  fair  trial,  and  there  will  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  testimony." 

"Welch's  Analysis  of  the  English  Sentence.— The  prominent  features 
of  this  work  have  been  presented  by  Lectures  to  numerous  Teachers'  Institutes,  and 
unanimously  approved.  The  classification,  founded  upon  the  fact  that  there  are  but 
three  elements  in  the  language,  is  very  simple,  and,  in  many  respects,  new.  The 
method  of  disposing  of  connectives  is  entirely  so.  The  author  has  endeavored  to 
study  the  language  as  it  is,  and  to  analyze  it  without  the  aid  of  antiquated  rules. 

This  work  is  highly  recommended  by  the  Superintendents  of  Public  Instruction  ol 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  other  States,  and  is  being  used  in  many  of  the  best  schools 
throughout  the  Union.  It  was  introduced  soon  after  publication  into  Oberlin  Col- 
lege, and  his  met  with  deserved  success. 

A.  S  BARNES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  York. 


NATIONAL  SERIES   OF  STANDARD  SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY  AND  CHEMISTRY. 

PARKER'S  PHILOSOPHY. 

PARKER'S  JUVENILE  PHILOSOPHY Price  $0  25 

PARKER'S  FIRST  LESSONS  IN  PHILOSOPHY 0  37^ 

PARKER'S  COMPENDIUM  OF  SCHOOL  PHILOSOPHY 1  00 

The  present  edition  of  PARKER'S  SCHOOL  PHILOSOPHY  has  been  corrected,  enlarged, 
and  improved,  and  contains  all  the  late  discoveries  and  improvements  in  the  science 
up  to  the  present  time.  It  contains  engravings  of  the  Boston  School  set  of  apparatus, 
a  description  of  the  instruments,  and  an  account  of  many  experiments  which  can  be 
performed  by  means  of  the  apparatus  ;  and  it  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  convenience 
of  study  and  recitation.  The  work  is  immensely  popular,  and  in  very  extensive  u&e, 
more  so  than  jmy  other  work  of  the  kind.  It  has  been  recommended  by  the  Super- 
intendents* of  1'ublic  Instruction  of  six  States,  and  is  the  Standard  Text-book  in 
all  the  principal  cities  of  Hie  United  Slates,  and  throughout  Canada  West. 

NORTON'S  FIRST  BOOK  OF  PHILOSOPHY  AND  ASTRONOMY $0  50 

By  WILLIAM  A.  NORTON,  M.  A.,  Professor  of  Civil  Engineering  in  Yale  College. 
Arranged  upon  the  catechetical  plan,  and  copiously  illustrated.  Designed  for 
Young  Pupils  commencing  the  study  of  the  science. 

THE  FIRST  BOOK  OF  SCIENCE— Two  PARTS  IN  ONK $1  00 

PART  I.  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY  AND  ASTRONOMY.    PART  IT.  CHEMISTRY  AND  ALLIED 

SCIENCES.     By  W.  A.  NORTON  and  J.  A.  PORTER,  Professors  in  Yale  College. 
This  volume  treats  of  the  elements  of  Natural  Science,  and  is  designed  to  meet,  the 
wants  of  young  persons  who  do  not  intend  to  pursue  a  complete  course  of  academical 
study.     It  is  designed  for  Public  and  Private  Schools,  and  will  be  found  admirably 
adapted  to  private  study,  and  home  instruction  in  familiar  science. 


BARTLETT'S  COLLEGE  PHILOSOPHY. 

BARTLETTS  SYNTHETIC  MECHANICS.  $3  00  I  BARTLETT'S  OPTICS  AND  ACOUSTICS.  $2  00 

BAKTLETT'S  ANALYTIC  MECHANICS..  4  00  |  BAKTLKTT'S  SPHERICAL  ASTRONOMY.    3  00 

The  above  are  the  Text-books  in  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy  at  "West  Point 

PORTER'S  SCHOOL  CHEMISTRY. 

FIRST  BOOK  OF  CHEMISTRY,  AND  ALLIED  SCIENCES,  including  »Q 
Outline  of  Agricultural  Chemistry.  By  Prof.  JOHN  A.  PORTER.  Price  50  cts. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  CHEMISTRY,  embracing  the  most  recent  Discoveries  in  tho 
Science,  and  the  Outlines  of  its  Application  to  Agriculture  and  the  Arts — illus- 
trated by  numerous  experiments  newly  adapted  to  the  simplest  apparatus.  By 
JOHN  A.  PORTER,  A.  M..  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Agricultural  and  Organic  Chemistry  in 
Yale  College.  Price  $1.00. 

These  works  have  been  prepared  expressly  for  Public  and  Union  Schools,  Academies, 
and  Seminaries,  where  an  extensive  course  of  study  on  this  subject  and  expensive 
apparatus  was  not  desired,  or  could  not  be  afforded.  A  fair,  practical  knowledge  of 
Chemistry  is  exceedingly  desirable,  and  almost  a  necessity,  at  the  present  day,  but  it 
has  been  taught  in  very  few  Public  or  Union  Schools,  owing  entirely  to  the  want  of 
suitable  text-books  adapted  to  simple  apparatus,  or  such  as  could  be  readily  obtained. 
It  is  confidently  believed  that  these,  works  supply  this  great  want,  and  will  be  found 
in  every  respect  just  what  is  required.  Boxes  containing  all  the  apparatus  and  mate- 
rials necessary  to  perform  all  the  experiments  described  in  these  books,  can  be  ob- 
tained for  $S.OO,  by  addressing  A.  S.  HAUNES  &  BURR,  New  York. 
The  t.bove  works  are  highly  recommended. 

PECK'S  ELEMENTS  OF  MECHANICS. 

This  volume  is  prepared  by  Prof.  W.  G.  PECK,  of  Columbia  College,  New  York. 
Price  $1.50. 

A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  York. 


NATIONAL  SERIES  OF  STANDABD  SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

SPELLING  AND  DEFINING. 

THE  JUVENILE  DEFINER:  A  Collection  and  Classification  of  FAMILIAR 
WORDS  and  NAMES,  correctly  Spelled,  Accented,  and  Defined.  By  W.  W.  SMITH, 
Principal  of  Grammar  School  No.  1,  New  York.  Price  30  cts. 

This  is  an  invaluable  book  for  young  children :  instead  of  long  columns  of  to  them 
incomprehensible  and  meaningless  words,  the  lessons  are  formed  of  those  words  which 
they  hear  and  use  almost  every  day,  but  of  which  they  have  formed  only  imperfect 
ideas.  The  words  are  grouped  with  reference  to  similar  signification  or  use — as  the 
several  kinds  of  BUILDINGS  compose  one  class; — the  kinds  of  VESSELS  another;— 
VEHICLES  another; — CLOTHS  another,  &c.,  &c. ;  experience  having  shown  that  th 
knowledge  of  one  word  of  a  class  produces  in  the  pupil  a  strong  desire  to  know  ALL 
belonging  to  that  class,  with  their  various  shades  of  meaning,  application,  &c.  The 
principal  words  used  in  the  definitions  are  also  defined,  and  the  arrangement  is  such 
that  almost  every  word  in  the  book  is  defined  at  the  time  or  before  its  employment. 

THE  GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  SPELLER;  or,  SPELLER'S  NEW  MANUAL. 

Containing  Eules  for  SPELLING,  with  numerous  Examples  to  illustrate  the  Appli- 
cation of  each  Kale;  together  with  a  large  Collection  of  the  most  Difficult  Words 
in  the  English  Language,  correctly  Spelled,  Pronounced,  and  Defined.  Arranged 
in  Easy  Lessons  for  Intermediate  Classes.  Price  40  cts. 

This  book  is  designed  for  those  pupils  who  have  studied  through  the  JUVENILE 
DEFINER.  The  Kules  for  Spelling  are  in  simple  language,  having  numerous  examples 
of  familiar  words  attached  to  illustrate  the  intent  of  each.  These  Kules  teach  the 
formation  of  the  great  majority  of  the  derivatives,  and  consequently  embrace  the 
greater  portion  of  the  words  of  the  language. 

The  lessons  consist  of  words  grouped  with  reference  to  the  sameness  of  sound  of 
certain  syllables  differently  spelled  ;  as  authorize,  exercise,  analyze,  sacrifice — the 
pronunciation  of  each  of  these  terminations  has  in  it  the  sound  of  ize,  though  ex- 
pressed by  a  different  combination  of  letters.  Again  :  burrow,  borough,  bergamot, 
bourgeois,  birchen,  have  the  sound  of  bur  in  the  first  syllable  of  each,  while  each  is 
spelled  differently:  the  same  may  be  said  of  chrysalis,  crispy,  Christian,  crystal — 
all  commencing  with  the  sound  of  k'ris — and  many  others. 

The  words  of  the  lessons  have  also  the  pronunciation  (in  italics),  and  a  short 
definition  of  each  attached— the  whole  comprising  the  most  difficult  words  in  the 
language.  To  which  are  added  copious  Exercises  in  False  Orthography— the  words 
to  be  written  correctly  by  the  pupil.  It  can  also  be  used  as  a  dictation  exercise. 

THE  SPELLER  AND  DEFINER'S  MANUAL ;  Being  a  DICTIONARY  and 
SPELLING-BOOK  combined,  in  which  the  most  Useful  Words  in  the  English 
Language  are  Spelled,  Pronounced,  and  Defined,  and  arranged  in  Classes;  to- 
gether with  Rules  for  Spelling,  Prefixes  and  Suffixes,  Rules  for  the  Use  of  Capi- 
tals, Punctuation  Marks,  Quotations  from  other  Languages  used  in  English  Cora- 
position,  Abbreviations,  &c.,  &c.  To  which  is  added  a  Vocabulary  of  Reference. 
Price  60  cts. 

In  this  book,  designed  for  the  highest  class,  we  have,  1st,  A  dissertation  on  tho 
Bounds  of  the  Vowels  and  Consonants^  their  uses  and  powers.  2d,  Rules  for  Spelling. 
3d,  Prefixes  and  Suffixes,  with  their  meanings.  4th,  Punctuation  marks,  and  how  to 
use  them — Rules  fur  the  use  of  Capitals,  Rules  for  Letter  and  Note  writing,  with 
diagrams,  &c.  In  the  body  of  the  work  there  are  about  14,000  of  the  principal  words 
in  the  language— arranged  in  classes  according  to  their  derivation, — correctly  spelled, 
pronounced,  and  defined — the  pronunciation  having  the  vowel  sounds  marked  by 
figures  which  refer  to  a  Key  easily  understood  and  applied.  By  this  arrangement, 
the  knowledge  of  one  word  of  a  class  will  give  some  idea  of  the  others. 

There  are  also  Questions  at  the  bottom  of  each  page,  which,  to  be  correctly  an- 
swered, require  the  pupil  to  keep  constantly  iu  his  mind  the  Rules  for  Spelling,  their 
application,  &c. 

This  book  can  also  be  used  with  great  advantage  as  a  DICTIONARY.  As  the  words 
are  not  in  alphabetical  order  for  obvious  reasons,  an  alphabetical  Vocabulary  is  placed 
at  the  end,  by  which  means  any  word  in  the  book  can  be  found. 

A.  S.  BAENES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  York. 


NATIONAL  SERIES  OF  STANDARD  SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

PARKER  &  WATSON'S  READING  SERIES. 

THE  NATIONAL  ELEMENTAEY  SPELLER.  Price  15  cents. 

THE  NATIONAL  PRONOUNCING  SPELLER.    188  pages.    Price  25  cents. 
A  full  treatise,  with  words  arranged  and  classified  according  to  their  vowel 
sounds,  and  reading  and  dictation  exercises. 

THE  NATIONAL  SCHOOL  PRIMER;  or,  "  PRIMARY  WORD-BUILDER." 
(Beautifully  Illustrated) Price  15  cents. 

THE  NATIONAL  FIRST  READER;  or,  "WORD-BUILDER." 

(Beautifully  Illustrated) 118  pages.    Price  25  cents. 

THE  NATIONAL  SECOND  READER 224  pages.    Price, 37*  cents" 

Containing  Primary  Exercises  in  Articulation,  Pronunciation,  and  Punctuation, 
(Splendidly  Illustrated.) 

THE  NATIONAL  THIRD  READER .„•  .288  pages.    Price  50  cents. 

Containing  Exercises  in  Accent,  Emphasis,  Punctuation,  &c.    (Illustrated.) 
THE  NATIONAL  FOURTH  READER 405  pages.    Price  75  cents. 

Containing  a  Course  of  Instruction  in  Elocution,  Exercises  in  Beading,  Declama- 
tion, &c. 

THE  NATIONAL  FIFTH  READER 600  pagss.    Price  $1.00 

"With  copious  Notes,  and  Biographical  Sketches  of  each  Writer. 


These  EKA.DERS  have  been  prepared  with  the  greatest  care  and  labor,  by  EICIIARD 
G.  PARKER,  A.  M.,  of  Boston,  and  J.  MADISON  WATSON,  an  experienced  Teacher  of 
New  York.  No  amount  of  labor  or  expense  has  been  spared  to  render  them  as  near 
perfect  as  pos&ible.  The  Illustrations,  which  are  from  original  designs,  and  the 
Typography,  are  unrivalled  by  any  similar  works. 

The  First  Header,  or  "  Word-Builder,"  being  the  first  issued,  is  alreadj 
in  extensive  use.  It  is  on  a  plan  entirely  new  and  original,  commencing  with  word* 
of  one  letter,  and  building  up  letter  by  letter,  until  sentences  are  formed. 

The  Second,  Third,  and  Fourth  Headers  follow  the  same  inductivi 
plan,  with  a  perfect  and  systematic  gradation,  and  a  strict  classification  of  subjects, 
The  pronunciation  and  definition  of  difficult  words  are  given  in  notes  at  the  bottom 
of  each  page.  Much  attention  has  been  paid  to  Articulation  and  Orthoepy ;  anc 
Exercises  on  the  Elementary  Sounds  and  their  combinations  have  been  so  introduced 
as  to  teach  but  one  element  at  a  time,  and  to  apply  this  knowledge  to  immediate  use, 
until  the  whole  is  accurately  and  thoroughly  acquired. 

The  Fifth  Reader  is  a  full  work  upon  Beading  and  Elocution.  Tne  works  of 
many  authors,  ancient  and  modern,  have  been  consulted,  and  more  than  a  hundred 
standard  writers  of  the  English  language,  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic,  laid  nnder  con- 
tribution to  enable  the  authors  to  present  a  collection  rich  in  all  that  can  .inform  the 
understanding,  improve  the  taste,  and  cultivate  the  heart,  and  which,  at  the  same 
time,  shall  furnish  every  variety  of  style  and  subject  to  exemplify  the  principles  of 
Rhetorical  delivery,  and  form  a  finished  reader  and  elocutionist  Classical  and  his- 
torical allusions,  so  common  among  the  best  writers,  have  in  all  cases  been  explained; 
and  concise  Biographical  Sketches  of  authors  from  whose  works  extracts  have  been 
selected,  have  also  been  introduced,  together  with  Alphabetical  and  Chronological 
List*  of  the  Names  of  Authors ;  thus  rendering  this  a  convenient  text-book  for  Stu- 
dents in  English  and  American  Literature. 

A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  New  York 


NATIONAL  SERIES  OF  STANDARD  SCHOOL-BOOKS, 


D  AVIE  S' 

Complete  Course  of  Mathematics. 

25lemeittar£  Course.  Keta51  Prica 

DAVIES'  PRIMARY  ARITHMETIC  AND  TABLE-BOOK $0  15 

DA  VIES'  FIRST  LESSONS  IN  ARITHMETIC 0  20 

DAVIES'  INTELLECTUAL  ARITHMETIC 0  25 

DAVIES'  NEW  SCHOOL  ARITHMETIC 0  45 

KEY  TO  DAVIES1  NEW  SCHOOL  ARITHMETIC .4%. 0  45 

DAVIES'  NEW  UNIVERSITY  ARITHMETIC - °  75 

KEY  TO  DAVIES'  NEW  UNIVERSITY  ARITIIMET 
DAVIES'  GRAMMAR  OF  ARITHMETIC  ..•. 
DAVIES'  NEW  ELEMENTARY  ALGEBRA 
KEY  TO  DAVIES'  NEW  ELEMENTARY  AL( 
DAVIES'  ELEMENTARY  GEOMETRY  AN 
DAVIES'  PRACTICAL  MATHEMATICS.., 


DAVIES'  UNIVERSITY  ALGEBRA  ...., 

KEY  TO  DAVIES1  UNIVERSITY  AL 

DAVIES'  BOURDON'S  ALGEBRA.. 

KEY  TO  DAVIES'  BOURDON'S 

DAVIES'  LEGEN ORE'S  GEOM 

DAVIES'  ELEMENTS  OF  SU 

DAVIES'  ANALYTICAL 

DAVIES'  DIFFERENTI 

DAVIES'  DESCRI 

DAVIES'  SHAD 

DAVIES'  LOGI 

DAVIES' 

DAVIES' 

' ,  arious  methods  of  European 
r:  't  nearly  forty_  years'  experience, 
of  Mathematics.  Its  methods, 
»dent  onward  by  the  same  analogies 
i,  aim  iti-r.  i-ztietmtted  to  impart  a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  the  science,  combining  clearness  in  the  several  branches,  and  unity  and  propor- 
tion in  the  whole.  The  higher  Books — in  connection  with  Prof.  Churches  Calculus 
and  Analytical  Geometry— &re  the  Text-books  in  the  Military  Academies  of  the 
United  States.  The  Superintendents  of  Public  Instruction  in  very  many  States 
have  officially  recommended  this  Series.  It  is  adopted  and  in  successful  use  in  the 
Normal  Schools  of  New  York,  Michigan,  Connecticut,  and  other  States,  and  in  a 
large  proportion  of  the  best  Schools,  Academies,  and  Colleges  of  the  Union.  The 
Revised  Editions  of  the  Arithmetics  embody  all  the  latest  and  most  approved  pro- 
cesses of  imparting  a  knowledge  of  the  science  of  numbers. 


A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR  have  the  pleasure  of  announcing  AN  ENTIRELY  NEW  WORK, 
by  Professor  DAVIES,  entitle'd 


ZTOW    XSLBSftERTTAHir    A  I:  GEE  HA, 

Comprising  the  First  Principles  of  the  Science. 
Also,  just  issued, 

UNIVERSITY    ALGEBRA, 

Embracing  the  Logical  Development  of  the  Science,  with  numerous  graded  examples 
The  above  works  combine,  with  the  BOURDON'S  ALGEBRA,  to  form  a  complete  and 
consecutive  course—  leading  the  pupil  from  the  most  elementary  principles  to  the 
consideration  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  the  science. 

A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR,  Publishers, 

51  &  53  John  Street,  N»w  5Tork, 


